Middletown plays host Healdsburg in winner’s semifinals Friday night at 8 p.m.
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HEALDSBURG >> Playing his best game as a Middletown Mustang, junior guard Harrison Brown scored 26 points and also dished out seven assists Wednesday night in a 66-49 win over the Mendocino Cardinals in the opening round of the 76th annual Redwood Empire Invitational Basketball Tournament at Healdsburg.
“Harrison’s best game, maybe ever,” Middletown head coach Jake Diehl said of the second-year varsity player.
Brown connected on three 3-pointers, had several drives to the basket when the Mendocino defense was preoccupied with slowing down Middletown big man Emmitt Lloyd, and was on point with his passes all night, including several feeds inside to Lloyd, who finished with 18 points.
Jon Hawkins added 12 points and six assists as the Mustangs improved to 3-3 while advancing to the REIBT semifinals Friday night against host Healdsburg at 8 p.m.
Middletown is 2-0 since members of the football team, which had an extended postseason run this season, rejoined the team on Monday. Players such as Lloyd and Hawkins have played more games (two) than they’ve had practices (one) so far, and with Middletown heavy into its tournament season right now – the Mustangs have the Stokes Tournament next week in Kelseyville – they’ll continue to have more games than practices until early next month.
“Everybody loves Jon,” Diehl said of Hawkins. “The kids listen when he talks. You want to build up leaders because they build up the team, and in the long run the kids listen more to them than to the coach. Having Jon back as a captain, it’s nice to have that in your locker room.”
While Middletown isn’t close to the form it showed off on the floor at the end of a 24-win season in 2024-25, the Mustangs are beginning to build back toward that point, and there’s no telling how far they could reach in 2025-26, according to Diehl.
“There are still things we need to improve on,” Diehl said. “Camaraderie, just gelling as a team. Our passes need to be tighter, and we need to play better defense.”
Mendocino (6-3) sank 10 3-pointers against Middletown in an attempt to keep up with the much taller Mustangs, and they were able to sink enough treys to stay close for the better part of the first half.
In a game that began with a pair of eight-point runs – first by the Mustangs, who went up 8-0, then by the Cardinals, who tied it at 8-8 – Mendocino was able to offset Middletown’s size advantage and even take a handful of small leads – 15-12 in the first quarter and 17-15 in the second quarter.
Middletown’s ability to score inside and outside proved to be too much in the end. When the Mustangs weren’t pounding the ball inside to Lloyd or scoring on inside drives by Hawkins and Brown, a handful of 3-pointers from Brown, Cody Perez and Willie Tadder certainly made Mendocino’s job on defense all the more tougher as the Mustangs came at the Cardinals from all directions.
Middletown used an 8-2 at the end of the second quarter, capped by a Perez 3-pointer with four seconds left in the half, to move out to a 33-23 halftime lead. The Cardinals would never be any closer the rest of the way.
Tadder’s 3-pointer to open the second half made it 36-23. Middletown quickly pushed its lead to 42-24, going up 18 on a Hawkins feed to Brown for a bucket.
Middletown also opened the fourth quarter with a 3-pointer, this time by Brown. Mendocino countered with a 3-pointer of its own before the Mustangs scored six straight points – Lloyd sandwiched a pair of buckets around a Hawkins basket – to effectively put the game out of reach at 57-35.
Lloyd posted his second straight double-double as he pulled down 14 rebounds, effectively limiting Mendocino to one shot on many possessions.
After turning the ball over nine times in the first half, the Mustangs committed just three turnovers over the final two quarters, something Diehl said he enjoyed very much.
“We did a much better job of taking care of the basketball in the second half,” he said.
Tadder and Hawkins joined Brown with three steals apiece.
In other REIBT first-round action Wednesday:
Healdsburg 64, Kelseyville 55
At Healdsburg, ahead by 11 points twice in the first half, including 38-27 at halftime, the smaller Kelseyville Knights gradually succumbed to Healdsburg’s inside game in the second half, the Greyhounds greatly aided by numerous Kelseyville turnovers during the final two quarters.
Healdsburg didn’t take long to erase Kelseyville’s halftime lead. After the two teams exchanged buckets to open the second half – the Greyhounds hitting a 3-pointer and the Knights a two-point basket – Healdsburg went on a 12-0 run to push in front 42-40.
Elijah Watkins, the Knights’ leading scorer with 16 points, scored inside with two minutes remaining in the quarter to briefly tie the game at 42-42, but Healdsburg pushed ahead to stay on its next possession. The Greyhounds took a 48-43 lead into the fourth quarter after scoring on an inbounds play with .4 seconds remaining.
Kelseyville hung around in the fourth quarter until Teague Jasper’s basket with three minutes left gave Healdsburg a 60-52 lead. Kelseyville immediately turned the ball over, the Greyhounds drew a foul with 2:57 left to play, and Henry Smith made both free throws with his team in the bonus to make it 62-52. Watkins made one of two free throws with 2:51 left to cut Healdsburg’s lead to 62-53, but another turnover led to a Greyhounds basket and a 64-53 lead.
Nick Arredondo had 13 points for the Knights, Riley Lopez added nine while Kimo Brown and Jair Inostroza Carrillo each had seven.
The Knights were coming off a 54-51 overtime victory the night before in their North Central League I opener at Lower Lake.
Healdsburg improved to 5-3.
