Kelseyville boys play Sonoma Valley in third-place game Friday with NorCal berth on the line
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SAN FRANCISCO >> Usually a playoff loss means the end of the road, but the Kelseyville Knights aren’t quite done yet despite falling 70-45 to No. 1 seed International in the semifinal round of the North Coast Section Division 5 playoffs on Tuesday night in San Francisco.
The section has added a third-place game this season and the fifth-seeded Knights (18-11) still have plenty left to play for when they return home Friday night to take on No. 11 seed Sonoma Valley (16-15) at 7 p.m. The winner advances to next week’s NorCal tournament, which is part of the CIF State Championships (the NorCal winner plays the SoCal winner for a state title).
“We’re still alive and have something to play for,” Kelseyville head coach Oscar Lopez said while finding the silver lining in his team’s loss to the Jaguars, who scored 48 first-half points – 28 in the first quarter alone – against what has been a stingy Knights defense for the most part this season.
“They were hitting everything,” Lopez said of the Jaguars’ shooters, most notably senior point guard Conor Maguire, who scored 16 points in the first quarter, including three 3-pointers.
The Knights spent the rest of the night playing catch-up. While they did make a run to get as close as 13 points in the third quarter, International made sure they would get no closer.
“They hit a couple of shots and it was back up to 20,” Lopez said.
Two trips to the Bay Area in five days clearly had an effect on the Knights’ play, according to Lopez, who said he’s glad to be coming home to face Sonoma Valley, a 62-58 loser to Alhambra in Tuesday’s other semifinal.
“We didn’t come out with the same energy and drive,” he added.
Kelseyville beat No. 4 seed College Prep 57-54 in the quarterfinals on Friday night in Oakland.
Lopez said it was pretty evident from the opening tip that the Knights were in for a long night. Besides the Jaguars’ crisp play from the opening tip, his own squad seemed just a step slow.
“The kids came out flat and it showed,” he said.
Kyle Watkins, the Knights’ four-year varsity veteran, did all he could do to get his team into the sectional championship game, scoring 18 points, including two of the Knights’ three 3-pointers.
“They didn’t have an answer for him,” Lopez said.
After Watkins, the scoring fell off to eight points from Brock Barrick and five for Max Hommer.
While Lopez said the result is nothing close to what the team wanted, he said there was no reason for his players to hang their heads, if for no other reason than their season isn’t over.
“These guys are pushing hard to take this program where it’s never been before,” he said of the Knights’ deep playoff run, which could continue next week into the NorCals. “We didn’t play up to our standards tonight, but we keep pushing those standards and goals higher with every win.”
Lopez thanked the Kelseyville fans who made the trip to San Francisco.
“We had a good number of fans come down to cheer for us and we appreciate that,” he said.
Naturally, Lopez said the Knights are looking forward to getting a big lift from the home crowd against Sonoma Valley, which is also having a solid postseason. Despite being the No. 11 seed in the original 16-team Division 4 field, the Dragons recorded back-to-back upsets in the first two rounds of the playoffs, knocking off No. 6 Swett 54-52 and No. 3 Del Norte 71-69 before losing another tight game to No. 2 Alhambra in the semifinals. They will be playing their fourth straight road game against Kelseyville …
International (20-11) plays Alhambra for the section championship Friday.
