KELSEYVILLE — Less than a week after losing 63-34 to Kelseyville in the consolation championship game of the Redwood Empire Invitational Basketball Tournament in Healdsburg, the Middletown Mustangs took their revenge with a 51-43 victory over those very same Knights in a second-round game Friday night at the 50th annual Stokes Tournament in Kelseyville.
“It was just a matter of getting down into the trenches and doing the work,” Middletown first-year head coach Jake Diehl said as the Mustangs (5-5) rallied from as much as 12-point deficit early in the second quarter to win their rematch with the Knights (5-4), “It was all about tightening up the loose ends. I felt like this was our most complete game yet.”
“They made the adjustments and we didn’t,” Kelseyville head coach Oscar Lopez said when asked to compete his team’s two meetings with Middletown this season — and they’ll square off two more times in league play early next year. “Those guys (Mustangs) wanted to get us tonight. We were not mentally ready to play. My hat’s off to them.”
Leading 13-5 after one quarter, Kelseyville made it a 17-5 game early in the second period on baskets by Diego Lopez and Adolfo Arias. That would be the high point for Kelseyville as things turned out.
“We got the early lead and let off,” Lopez said. “We let them off way too early.”
Middletown slowly began to build momentum from there, a 3-pointer from Wyatt Moore (14 points) kick-starting the Mustangs’ offense. Moore’s putback basket cut it to 17-10, then after an Arias basket down low for the Knights, the Mustangs ended the half with a 7-0 run to trail only 19-17.
Halftime did nothing to interfere with the Mustangs’ new-found confidence momentum.
Nadav Dicovski’s layup tied the game at 19 as play opened in the third quarter and Elijah Diaz buried a 3-point to put the Mustangs in front to stay at 22-19. Moore’s three-point play a short time later, a pair of Oscar Cruz baskets, and a 3-pointer by Adrian Backus had the Mustangs up 33-27 by quarter’s end.
Kelseyville got as close as five points twice in the fourth quarter, the last time on a Luke Watkins 3-pointer with 1:47 left in the game. Dicovski rebounded a missed 3-pointer by a teammate and scored to make it 47-40 and Bodhi Moore’s only two points of the game followed with 47.9 seconds left. A Wyatt Moore free throw with 43.1 seconds to go pushed Middletown’s lead back up to 50-40.
Middletown’s rebounding on the offensive and defensive boards was a huge factor in the second half and especially the fourth quarter. The Mustangs not only earned themselves extra shots but limited Kelseyville to a single chance on most of its possessions.
“They had way too many offensive rebounds,” Lopez said.
“It’s not like it wasn’t there,” Diehl said of the tools necessary to make the Mustangs a competitive team this season. “It’s always been there but it was a matter of my team believing in itself. I can believe in them all I want, but if they don’t believe, it’s not going to matter. I think we’re starting to gel as a team. We showed improvement in all areas tonight.”
Dicovski ended with 12 points for Middletown and Backus added eight. For Kelseyville, Luke Watkins led the Knights with 15 points, Manny Acosta had nine (all on 3-pointers), Arias had eigh and Kyle Watkins seven.
