SAN FRANCISCO — The Gateway Gators did everything Andy Brown expected on Saturday during a quarterfinal-round game against his Middletown Mustangs in the North Coast Section Division 4 girls basketball playoffs at Kezar Pavilion in San Francisco.]
“I scouted them so hard,” Middletown’s head coach said not long after Middletown’s season ended with a 49-28 loss to the fourth-seeded Gators, who held just a 25-18 halftime lead and a 32-23 advantage entering the fourth quarter. “I had a good scouting report, but we couldn’t execute on offense.”
Wherever Middletown’s offense was Saturday, it certainly wasn’t in San Francisco as the fifth-seeded Mustangs, for a second straight playoff game, struggled to hit shots from the field and, even more disturbing, from the free-throw line where they went 2-for-16 in the second half against Gateway (22-4), the undefeated Bay Counties Central champions this season.
“After the Fort Bragg game (a 31-28 first-round home win for the Mustangs on Wednesday), we went heavy on the free throws in practice, but it seemed to have the reverse effect,” Brown said.
Middletown (19-6), the undefeated North Central League I champion, simply couldn’t get its offense to engage at any point during the game, at least not with any consistency. Amber Hart’s nine points and Skylar Williams’ eight led the Mustangs, who played Gateway even through the first quarter at 8-8.
Playing in Kezar, an older facility rich with history, may have impacted the Mustangs’ performance a bit, according to Brown.
“It has an echoing ambiance and it throws off your depth perception a little,” Brown said. “I think it’s a place you have to play in to get used to.”
But make no mistake about it, it was Middletown’s inability to put the ball in the hoop that allowed Gateway to break open a relatively close game with a 17-4 fourth quarter that sealed the Mustangs’ fate, according to Brown.
“Once they got like a 12-point cushion they started working the ball around and eating up clock,” Brown said. “They would miss a shot, get the offensive rebound and start all over.”
The Mustangs’ leading scorers on the season, senior Paige Astley and freshman Mia Hoogendoorn, struggled like everyone else wearing a Middletown uniform on Saturday. Astley, in her high school finale, added six points, including a 3-pointer. Hoogendoorn, a key contributor all season long, failed to score.
“We had our opportunities, this game was definitely within our reach,” Brown said. “It was a winnable game and that’s the really frustrating part.”
That and it was Brown’s final game as the Mustangs’ coach. His daughter, Allison, a senior on the team, is graduating and his son is playing middle school basketball, which is where Brown could end up coaching next.
“I’ll probably be helping out G.J. next season,” Brown said of Middletown varsity boys head coach G.J. Rockwell.
Brown’s 2021-22 team accorded itself well, going undefeated in the North Central League I this season and notching a Division 4 playoff win, which have been far and few between for Lake County teams for many years. The Mustangs scheduled a difficult preseason, but it only made them that much tougher once league play finally rolled around. And they held up well during a brutal month of January when league game after league game was postponed because of COVID-19, and with most of those games backloaded onto the final three weeks of the regular season.
“We brought ourselves through the trenches,” Brown said. “I’m proud of them. They had a successful season.”
Brown even accomplished a season first in his final game with the Mustangs. Unhappy with the officiating, he picked up his first technical foul of 2021-22 late in the third quarter.
“I couldn’t take it any longer,” he said of a handful of calls that went against Middletown. “I certainly earned that one.”
Brown also got to witness junior varsity call-up Bella Santiago scoring her first two career varsity points late in the game. He said she’ll score a lot more before she’s done at Middletown.
