Knights drop overtime battle with Mendocino in consolation semifinals
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HEALDSBURG >> Where Middletown’s football team left off after a run to the Northern California championship game, the school’s varsity boys basketball team has picked right up, or so it seems.
Facing tournament host Healdsburg in the winner’s semifinal round of the 76th annual Redwood Empire Invitational Basketball Tournament (REIBT), one of the oldest tournaments in the state, head coach Jake Diehl’s Mustangs carved a path to the REIBT championship game with a 78-39 victory over the Greyhounds on Friday night at Smith Robinson Gym, which will also be the setting for Saturday’s championship game between Middletown and Marin Academy of San Rafael at 8 p.m.
It’s the first time a Middletown team has made it to the REIBT final and only the third time a Lake County school has done so. No Lake County team, boys or girls, has walked away with the REIBT championship trophy, which the Mustangs now have the opportunity to do, not to mention the tourney MVP award and additional All-Tourney hardware.
The football-to-basketball transition for the Mustangs is significant in as much as the basketball team opened the season without several of its players who were still playing football at the time. A 1-3 start ensued. Since such football players as Jon Hawkins, Emmitt Lloyd and Jasiah Pike have returned to the hardwood, the Mustangs have gone 3-0 even though they’ve had only two practices since joining the team Monday, one less than the number of games they’ve already played.
That transition has been relatively seamless, according to Diehl, who said his football players, especially varsity veterans Hawkins and Pike, are rounding into form a lot sooner than he expected.
“They’re like sponges,” he said. “They pick up everything so fast. Jon and Josiah are both super learners.”
Hawkins, Lloyd, junior guard Harrison Brown and Pike all stepped up Friday night against the Greyhounds, who pressed Middletown the entire way.
“It didn’t cause us too much grief,” Diehl said. “In fact, it helped us do some of things we were able to do on offense.”
Healdsburg’s pressure didn’t seem to bother Hawkins at all. While finishing with 21 points, the same number as Brown, he also had 18 rebounds (team high) with five steals (team high) and four assists, and not a single turnover. Hawkins also added his signature slam dunk – he’s had one in each of his first three games – in the fourth quarter against the Greyhounds to send some Healdsburg fans heading for the exits.
“That kind of sealed the deal for us,” Diehl said of Hawkins’ dunk. “It took the energy out of them (Greyhounds) and sent some of their fans out of the stands.”
Lloyd, 6-foot-9 sophomore center, ended up with 19 points and 15 rebounds while Pike just missed his own double-double with nine points and 10 rebounds.
“Emmitt is a force to be reckoned with,” Diehl said.
Brown, coming off a 26-point game in Middletown’s tournament-opening win over Mendocino on Wednesday, added a team-best five assists as well as three steals.
“Harrison is doing his thing,” Diehl said.
Healdsburg was able to hang around for a half, trailing 35-24 at the break, before Middletown ran away during a 43-15 second half.
Marin Academy beat Ukiah, 58-45, in the other semifinal Friday to improve to 8-2 on the season.
“They can shoot the lights out and are very fast,” Diehl said of the Wildcats, who are also gunning for their first REIBT championship.
Mendocino 51, Kelseyville 47 (OT)
At Healdsburg, in the REIBT consolation semifinals, Kelseyville lost a back-and-forth battle with Mendocino in overtime, the Cardinals hitting one of two free throws with 11.8 seconds left in regulation to tie the game at 45, then going on to outscore the Knights 6-2 in the extra period.
Gordon Astrup (14 points) scored Kelseyville’s first 10 points of the fourth quarter, the final two coming on free throw with 1:36 remaining that tied the game at 42-42. It was 44-44 when Kelseyville’s Jair Inostroza Carrillo got to the free-throw line and made the second of two shots with 18.8 seconds left, giving Kelseyville its final lead of the night at 45-44. Mendocino’s Leo Donley drew a shooting foul with 11.8 seconds remaining and hit the first one of two shots to tie it before missing the second.
Kelseyville set up for a final-second shot but missed it, sending the game to overtime.
Mendocino jumped ahead on a 3-pointer and added another basket for a 50-45 lead before Nick Arredondo’s bucket closed the gap to 50-47. The Cardinals iced the game by hitting one of two free throws with 17.9 seconds to go
Kelseyville had multiple opportunities in overtime to counter Mendocino, but some rushed shots and poor shot selection didn’t do the Knights or head coach Chaze Russell any favors.
The patience Kelseyville had shown late in the fourth quarter to get the ball down low to Astrup in the paint wasn’t there in the overtime as the Knights rushed some shots and didn’t always exercise their best option on offense.
“We struggled with our composure at the end, and part of that is a lack of varsity experience,” Russell said. “We tried to force the ball in instead of working for the better shot.”
Added Russell, “I can live with the results on the scoreboard if we play the game right.”
Arredondo finished with a team-best 17 points in a game that featured 17 lead changes.
Kelseyville fell behind by as many as nine points early in the second quarter before battling back to 26-23 by halftime.
Arredondo’s 3-pointer to open the second half knotted the score at 26. The Knights took a 34-33 lead into a back-and-forth fourth quarter during which the two teams were never separated by more than three points.
Carrillo finished with eight points.
While the Knights, who graduated nearly the entire roster off last season’s 18-12 team, are 0-2 in the tournament standings after losses to Healdsburg and Mendocino (7-3), Russell said both games should benefit his team down the road in North Central League I action.
“That’s the beauty of these games,” he said. “We’ll learn from this and apply what we’ve learned moving forward.”
Kelseyville draws Willits in the seventh-place game Saturday at 2 p.m. The Knights return home Tuesday to play Middletown in league action.
Upper Lake 68, Round Valley 37
At Cloverdale, Mason Parker (13 points), Landen Robinson (10 points), Tyler Collins (10 points) and Carey Swaney (10 points) all scored in double figures as Upper Lake beat Round Valley in the consolation semifinals of the John McMillan Holiday Tournament at Cloverdale High School.
“Great bounceback game for us,” Upper Lake coach Thomas Santana said. “Round Valley is a very young team and they fought hard. We came out way more aggressive today and just seemed like we wanted to be there unlike Anderson Valley (on Thursday).”
Added Santana, “We moved the ball well on the offensive side and played great team defense. With 34 bench points, I was happy with our play.”
Upper Lake plays Credo for the consolation championship Saturday at 10:30 a.m.
Biggs 53, Lower Lake 52
At Maxwell, Biggs hit 30-foot shot as time expired to beat Lower Lake in the winner’s semifinals of the Maxwell Tournament.
Lower Lake (3-4) trailed by 11 points at halftime and seven entering the fourth quarter before taking the lead late in the game.
Raijhier McKneely scored 15 points and Zackquez Sanders added 14 for the Trojans. Noah Hakala had 11. Sanders found the range on three 3-pointers.
Lower Lake plays Princeton in the third-place game Saturday at 4:30 p.m.
Clear Lake 67, Technology 21
At Calistoga, Clear Lake routed Technology in a second-round game at the Gene Duffy Memorial Tournament.
The Cardinals (4-1) led 37-14 at halftime.
No other details were reported.
Clear Lake plays South Fork on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. as the tournament wraps up.
