Mustangs close out historic 2024-25 campaign with 70-63 NorCal loss
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MIDDLETOWN >> And that’s the season for the Middletown High School varsity boys basketball team, but what a season it has been even if a 70-63 loss to the Weed Cougars isn’t the ending the Mustangs had in mind Tuesday night in the opening round of the NorCal Division 5 playoffs.
“You can’t take anything away from what these guys accomplished this season,” Middletown head coach Jake Diehl said. “It was a historic year.”
Middletown won a school-record number of games (25), played a school-record number of games (32), including a school-record five playoff games, all of which were contested on the Mustangs’ home court. They are the first Middletown team to reach the NorCals, a stay they were hoping would prove a bit longer.
“These are great kids, the year they had was special, but it still stings a little bit because we knew could have won it,” Diehl said.
Instead, it was No. 12 seed Weed (25-6) coming away with the upset against the No. 5-seeded Mustangs despite a nearly four-hour trip to reach the Tallman Gym. Led by 6-foot-4 junior shooting guard Jaxon King, who lit up the Mustangs for 33 points, the Cougars, runner-up in the North Section this season, will hit the road Thursday to play Fortune Early College of Sacramento, the No. 4 seed.
“That No. 0 (King) for Weed was doing it,” Diehl said.
The two teams came out sluggish as Weed led 9-7 after one quarter. The Cougars opened up a double-digit lead midway through the second quarter before the Mustangs came roaring back to tie it 27-27 by halftime.
Weed had a 48-42 lead through three quarters, but there were signs of big trouble for Middletown because starters Anthony Bowerman and Jasiah Pike each had four fouls, prompting Diehl to pull them out of the game.
The foul situation deteriorated in the fourth quarter.
“I brought them (Bowerman and Pike) back in with about six minutes left,” Diehl said. “They both fouled out about two minutes later.”
Fighting to stay close down the stretch, the Mustangs lost their other three starters – Bodhi Moore (19 points), Jon Hawkins (15 points) and Harrison Brown (12 points) – to fouls, one by one, in the final minutes.
And the Cougars absolutely made the Mustangs pay at the free-throw line, going 18-for-26 in the second half to Middletown’s 4-for-7. King went 10-for-13 at the line over the final two quarters.
Despite the Mustangs’ tough luck, Diehl said the Mustangs refused to give in.
“We fought right to the end,” Diehl said. “Harrison made three of his four 3-pointers in the fourth quarter and Bodhi had two of his the 3-pointers in the fourth quarter.”
It was the final high school game for both Bowerman and Moore.
Moore, a three-year varsity veteran, entered play needing 22 points to set the school’s single-season scoring record, held by Tyler Hunt with 618 points, and 26 to reach 1,000 for his career. He finished with 616 for the season, joining Hunt as the only Middletown players to reach the 600 plateau, and 993 for his career. He played in 31 of the team’s 32 games this season, missing only one, that in early January, to attend a high-profile junior golf tournament (Moore is a standout golfer for the Mustangs as well).
PLAYOFF NOTES: No. 1 seed University Prep of Redding needed a last-second 3-pointer, to get past Durham 51-49 in a first-round game Tuesday. In other first-round action, No. 2 Woodland Christian never came close to beating a Sonoma Valley squad that defeated Kelseyville in the North Coast Section Division 5 third-place game last week. Sonoma Valley, the No. 15 seed, rolled to a 73-61 win and will play International, the team that beat Kelseyville in the Division 5 semifinals, in the NorCal quarterfinals on Thursday … It might be a long time before you see another Lake County team play five straight playoff games at home, which the Mustangs pulled off … Moore and Middletown’s Mia Hoogendoorn combined 1,215 points this season. Moore’s 616 points ties Lower Lake’s Aleia Milano (2017-18) for the eighth-most points scored in a single season among Lake County players. Hoogendoorn is 14th with 599 … It’s an unofficial award to be sure, but the Middletown Mustangs take home “the last man standing award” for the winter sports season in Lake County. Because so few county teams ever reach the NorCal round, that honor usually goes to a county wrestler competing in the state tournament, but not this time … Sophomore Cody Perez and freshman Cody de Jong both finished with five points in Tuesday’s loss to Weed … Moore, Bowerman and Aron Bennett are Middletown’s three seniors, The remainder of the roster returns next season, including starters Hawkins and Pike, both juniors, and sophomore Brown … “This is something that doesn’t happen every year, so you’ve got to appreciate what they’ve accomplished,” Diehl said of the Mustangs reaching the NorCals. “We certainly enjoyed it.” Coming up are the All-North Central League I teams followed by the All-County teams.
