26-12 second quarter carries Middletown to 73-57 non-league home win
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MIDDLETOWN >> If there was a shot to be taken, the Middletown Mustangs made nearly every single one during a scorching-hot second quarter Tuesday afternoon while overwhelming the Healdsburg Greyhounds 73-57 in non-league varsity boys basketball action at Middletown.
Middletown (9-3) outscored Healdsburg 26-12 in the second quarter to open up a 40-28 halftime lead, but not even that explosive outburst tells the whole story in the first half. The Greyhounds (6-8) opened the game red-hot, jumping out to an 11-3 lead in the game’s first four minutes, but the Mustangs flipped the switch at that point, battling back to cut that deficit to 16-14 by quarter’s end.
And then the second quarter happened.
“We changed up our defense a little bit,” Middletown head coach Jake Diehl said. “We didn’t give them any space. Where we were at arm’s length from them early, we closed the gap.”
That wasn’t all, according to Diehl when asked about the team’s second-quarter surge.
“We just came out with more energy, and we play with energy, we’re capable of some great things,” he added.
Great things like making seven of their nine 3-pointers in the second quarter, three of them by Bodhi Moore, who led all scorers with 25 points.
Back-to-back 3-pointers by Middletown in the quarter’s first minute put the Mustangs ahead to stay at 21-16. The Mustangs turned the ball over on their next possession, but two 3-pointers by Moore made it 27-19. A three-point play by Jon Hawkins (12 points), who scored on a coast-to-coast layup and drew a foul in the process, gave the Mustangs their first double-digit lead at 30-20.
After a Bowerman 3-pointer pushed Middletown’s advantage to 33-21, Hawkins added the game’s signature moment with a slam dunk at the 3:12 mark as the Mustangs went up 35-21.
“That’s always a momentum shifter,” a smiling Diehl said of Hawkins’ dunk. “He’s an explosive player.”
Middletown pushed its lead to as many as 15 points as freshman guard hit a 3-pointer and later a free throw to make it 40-25. Healdsburg’s Eric Nielsen drained a 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer to cut the deficit to 40-28.
The Mustangs put the game away in the third quarter, opening up as much as a 19-point lead, and had as much as a 21-point cushion in the fourth quarter.
Middletown’s well-rounded attack included 10 points from sophomore guard Harrison Brown, seven from Tadder and six from Jasiah Pike.
Cooper Conrad led the Greyhounds with 14 points, including four 3-pointers, and Ethan Overdorf had 13 points.
Middletown hosts St. Vincent on Thursday at 6 p.m.
“That’ll be a tough one,” Diehl said. “St. Vincent will have its state championship football players back, they weren’t there when we played them before.”
Middletown beat St. Vincent 37-35 in the third-place game of the Gary von Raesfeld Invitational Dec. 14 at St. Vincent High School in Petaluma. Middletown also will be without its top player, Moore, who is taking part in a golf tournament.
“It’s been scheduled for a long time,” Diehl said of Moore, who is also a member of Middletown’s championship golf team.
Junior varsity
Cody Perez scored 20 points to lead the Middletown junior varsity squad past Healdsburg 60-21. Emmett Lloyd and John Finney added seven points apiece.
Perez sank four 3-pointers while Dylan Caviness and Liam Earsley each had one.
“Strong performance after a holiday break,” Middletown head coach Andy Brown said.
