Kelseyville blows out Roseland College Prep in first round of Redwood Empire Invitational
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HEALDSBURG >> The Roseland Collegiate Prep Grizzlies were in way, way, way over their heads Wednesday night against the Kelseyville Knights in the opening round of the 75th annual Redwood Empire Invitational Basketball Tournament at Healdsburg High School.
Kelseyville starters and reserves received roughly equal amounts of playing time as the Knights rolled to a 82-33 win, their third straight after opening the season 0-2 against some pretty good competition. In those three wins they’ve scored, in order, 78 points against Justin-Siena, 76 against Lower Lake and 82 against Roseland Collegiate Prep (0-5), a North Central League II team out of Santa Rosa still looking for its first win of the season.
Kelseyville scored the first 22 points as the Knights’ starting unit raced up and down the court, scoring at will down low against the Grizzlies. By the time the first quarter was complete at Smith Robinson Gym, Kelseyville owned a 30-5 lead without aid of a 3-pointer, which is a big part of the Knights’ offense.
“Scoring 30 points in a quarter without hitting a 3-pointer, that’s unheard of for us,” Kelseyville head coach Oscar Lopez said. “We were able to pound the ball inside and took advantage of it.”
About all the Grizzlies could do was heave up 3-pointers, and 21 of their points were scored from behind the 3-point arc.
Kelseyville should see better competition moving forward in the REIBT bracket, beginning with a Friday game against San Rafael (8-2) at 7:30 p.m. in the East Gym. San Rafael beat AIMS College Prep of Oakland 76-51 in another first-round game Wednesday.
Impressed as he’s been with the team’s offense this season, Lopez said Kelseyville’s level of success this season will be determined by the play of the team’s defense.
“We’ve got to do it on defense, we know we can score,” Lopez said with an eye toward North Central League I play as the Knights take aim on a second straight league championship and the North Coast Section Division 4 playoffs after that.
Kelseyville’s 12-man roster is nearly an all-senior show this season – 11 seniors, one junior. Ten of those 12 scored points on Wednesday. While the starters played the first quarter and most of the third, the reserves had plenty of minutes on the court to show what they could do, including senior forward Sam Arredondo, who scored 11 of his 17 points in the second quarter. Brock Barrick led the Knights with 18 points, hitting back-to-back 3-pointers in the third quarter to give Kelseyville a 64-13 lead, Kyle Watkins added 11 points and junior Riley Lopez added seven. Tyler Bryant and Max Hommer each finished with six.
There are plenty of pros and cons playing in blowout games, according to Lopez. Being able to get all of his reserves time on the court is certainly a plus, but one of the negatives is the inability of the starters to get into any kind of a real groove.
“I’m not going to be able to get a lot of those guys into the closer games we play down the road,” Lopez said. “I want my guys to get better each game, but it’s harder to build consistency (for the starters) in games like this.”
The fourth quarter was played with a running clock because of the 73-23 lead the Knights held after three quarters. Kelseyville’s biggest lead was 54 points – 79-25 – early in the fourth quarter.
There was a bit of drama, at least for the Knights. They tried to dunk the ball three times but came up short each time. Arredondo had the best opportunity but was called for traveling while on an inbound trajectory for the basket.
Depending on how the Knights fare Friday against San Rafael, they could be playing for the REIBT championship on Saturday.
