Kelseyville knocks off Middletown 53-44; Cardinals roll past Upper Lake in NCL I action
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KELSEYVILLE >> Kyle Watkins scored a game-best 23 points, pulling to within 18 of 1,000 for his career, and the Kelseyville Knights cleared the first of two big hurdles this week as they used an 11-2 run in the fourth quarter to beat the Middletown Mustangs 53-44 in a North Central League I varsity boys basketball game at Kelseyville.
Kelseyville, Middletown and St. Helena all entered Tuesday’s play tied atop the league standings at 7-1. Kelseyville’s victory combined with St. Helena’s 58-55 win at Cloverdale leaves the Knights and Saints, last year’s co-champions, tied at 8-1, and those two collide Friday in St. Helena with sole possession of first place up for grabs. Middletown (7-2 league, 15-6 overall) falls off a game off the pace.
“We wanted it more down the stretch,” Kelseyville head coach Oscar Lopez said of the Knights breaking open what was a back-and-forth game for the first three quarters (six lead changes).
Watkins clearly wanted it more than any other player on the court, which wasn’t a surprise to Lopez.
“Our Mr. Consistent,” Lopez said of Watkins, who scored the final seven points of the first quarter to give Kelseyville a 15-12 lead, and his eight straight points in the third quarter pushed Kelseyville’s lead to 34-27 – the biggest lead enjoyed by either team to that point.
“That’s what you expect from a four-year varsity guy,” Lopez said of Watkins, who was called up to the varsity midway through his freshman season.
Middletown was hoping for a season sweep of the Knights (8-1, 13-8), who the Mustangs beat 61-50 in Middletown during their first league meeting back on Dec. 17 in Middletown.
Middletown head coach Jake Diehl said he was hoping for the same kind of outcome in the rematch, but the Mustangs struggled from 3-point range all night despite outscoring Kelseyville 12-6 at the free-throw line.
“That wasn’t my team out there tonight,” Diehl said. “We’ve shot the worst we’ve shot all season, and we got outrebounded.”
Outside of 18 points from Jon Hawkins, the Mustangs struggled to get consistent scoring from their other starters. Compounding that was the play of the two benches – Kelseyville outscored Middletown 13-2.
“It’s huge,” Diehl said of the advantage a deep bench gives the Knights.
“That’s the beauty of our bench, it comes up big,” Lopez said of such players as Adam Astrup, who had two big baskets in the third quarter, Ryder Leary, who scored four of his six points in the fourth quarter, and Tyler Bryant and Max Hommer. “They all gave me some valuable minutes.”
Tuesday’s game also marked one of the few times this season the Knights have won a game despite having only one player (Watkins) score in double figures. Much like the Mustangs and leader Hawkins, Kelseyville’s other starters struggled to put the ball in the hoop, but the play of the Knights’ bench helped offset some of that.
Brock Barrick, the Knights’ 3-point specialist, hit the first shot of the game to give Kelseyville a 3-0 lead but didn’t hit another shot from behind the arc until his trey with 2:38 left in the game proved to be the dagger, giving Kelseyville a 50-39 advantage. He finished with eight points, five of those in the fourth quarter.
While Kelseyville led after each of the first three quarters – 15-12, 26-25 and 41-36 – the game was nowhere near secure until late in the fourth quarter. Leary’s two free throws gave the Knights a 43-36 cushion early in the final period, but Bodhi Moore’s 3-pointer seconds later narrowed the gap to 43-39, as close as the Mustangs would get the rest of the way.
Leary’s basket with 4:16 remaining made it 47-39 until Barrick struck from long range with 2:38 left. The Mustangs were never closer than eight the rest of the way.
“We didn’t come ready to play,” Diehl said in summing up Middletown’s night. “That’s not what we do. It was kind of a mental breakdown.”
Diehl said the Mustangs will be rooting for St. Helena to beat Kelseyville on Friday because they still have a game left with St. Helena (Feb. 7 in Middletown).
“We need to win out and get some help,” Diehl said with an eye toward the Kelseyville at St. Helena game on Friday.
Kelseyville’s objective, according to Lopez, is to take control of the league race with a victory Friday against the Saints, a team it beat 66-52 on Jan. 7 in Kelseyville.
“We’ve got to prove ourselves on the road Friday,” Lopez said. “We’ve won one big game this week, now we need to win another.”
Lopez had nothing but praise for Middletown’s bid to sweep the season series from the Knights.
“It’s what we expected,” Lopez said of the hard-fought battle. “They are one of the top teams in the league. I think both teams played hard.”
Harrison Brown, a sophomore guard, had nine points for Middletown, all 3-pointers.
If Watkins doesn’t score his 1,000th point Friday at St. Helena, he’ll get his next chance Wednesday, Feb. 5 at home against Upper Lake.
“There’s no pressure for him to do it against St. Helena,” Lopez said. “The only thing we need to worry about in that game is getting the win. He doesn’t have to force the situation because he’s going to do it.”
Kelseyville has five league games remaining, not counting playoffs, underscoring Lopez’s point that Watkins’ milestone is all but assured. He’ll be the second player this season to reach 1,000, joining Middletown’s Mia Hoogendoorn, who did it back in late November. Hoogendoorn has 1,398 points and counting.
Middletown hits the road Friday night to play Lower Lake (0-9).
In junior varsity action Tuesday, an anticipated first-place showdown between Kelseyville and Middletown never materialized as the Knights scored 32 first-quarter points en route to a 83-39 victory that finished with a running clock.
Kelseyville (9-0, 13-7) led 51-19 at halftime. Middletown drops to 7-2 in league play and 14-6 overall.
“I was really confident going into tonight’s game with how well we have been playing, but Kelseyville owned the NCL I tonight,” Middletown head coach Andy Brown said. “They have an eye on the prize and aren’t slowing down. They just may have played a flawless game.”
Jair Carrillo led a balanced Kelseyville attack with 19 points, eight assists and five steals. Jacob Amendola added 14 points and six rebounds while Joey Watson also had 14 points.
Leland Pike’s 11 points led the Mustangs while Nalu Johnson finished with seven and John Finney and Kolton Costlow each had six.
“Kelseyville’s extra effort and determination was the intangible we needed tonight,” Brown said.
Both teams are on the road Friday as Kelseyville visits St. Helena while Middletown travels to Lower Lake.
Clear Lake 71, Upper Lake 47
At Lakeport, Zane McAuley’s 29 points, including seven 3-pointers, powered the Clear Lake Cardinals to a big win over the Upper Lake Cougars.
Clear Lake (5-4, 10-10) also received double-digit scoring from Jesse Hayes (12 points) and Kaden Graham (10 points).
“Nice bounceback win for our team,” Clear Lake head coach Mark Cory said. “We came out and got an early lead, then took control in the second quarter. It was not our cleanest game, but the boys played hard. Jesse and Kaden played well down low tonight.”
Upper Lake was missing starter James Beaux Stiritz (out sick) and his absence was certainly felt, according to head coach Tony Arroyo. “We struggled finding our rhythm early on the offensive side of the ball. With Beaux being out six we need others to find some buckets in his absence.”
Added Arroyo, “Clear Lake is a good defensive team. They’re strong and cause a lot of hard shots.”
Landen Robinson and Jared Rosales each had 11 points for the Cougars (2-7, 5-10) while Nick Barnes added seven points.
“Landen played great defense, causing a lot of problems for them early, but eventually they got hot from 3(-point range) and the lead started to pull away from us. Connor Vogel and Delaney Allison both were rebounding great, but the shots weren’t falling. It was a tough loss.”
Upper Lake did pick up a win in the JV game, 61-51, as Mason Parker came off the bench to score 19 points for the Cougars (3-6).
“Big win for the guys, proud of them,” Upper Lake head coach Lupeli Faleagafulu said. “They’ve been beating themselves later about playing a complete game, and they did that tonight.”
Added Faleagafulu, “Mason Parker coming off the bench was huge for us tonight. He had his best all-around game tonight.”
TJ Malicay had 16 points and Shawn Way 11 for the Cougars.
Ayden Moreno’s 24 points led the Cardinals (4-5) while Nolan Buffalo had 10.
“We came out with no energy and Upper Lake outworked us,” Clear Lake head coach Shady Cerezo said. “They wanted it more than we did.”
Clear Lake travels to Fort Bragg on Friday while Upper Lake returns home to play Cloverdale.
Fort Bragg 57, Lower Lake 37
At Fort Bragg, trying to build on two encouraging efforts last week against Cloverdale and Kelseyville, the Lower Lake Trojans came up short at Fort Bragg.
“The Timberwolves just flat out outhustled us,” Lower Lake head coach Anthony Farrington said. “Also, we struggled with out defense, and on offense we were impatient and forced hard shots, and that made all the difference.”
Steven Rich led the Trojans (0-9, 2-18) with 13 points, Noah Hakala had 10 and Brody Shields eight.
“The Timberwolves are to be commended on their hustle and good ball movement and taking high-percentage shots instead of forced shots,” Farrington said.
Fort Bragg also won the JV game. The final score and individual results were not reported.
Lower Lake hosts Middletown on Friday.
