Clear Lake drops 71-46 road game to Healdsburg, McAuley closes in on 1,000
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MIDDLETOWN >> Sophomores Emmitt Lloyd and Willie Tadder weren’t the only reasons the Middletown Mustangs beat the Sonoma Valley Coyotes in a non-league varsity boys basketball game matching two nine-win teams Saturday evening in Middletown, but they certainly were a big reason.
Lloyd, a 6-foot-8 center, scored 22 points, ripped down 25 rebounds and blocked five shots – all team highs – and Tadder added 15 points and four assists as Middletown held off a late Sonoma Academy charge to win 54-51 at the Tallman Gym.
“All the little things add up to all the big things,” Middletown head coach Jake Diehl said of his team’s progression the last month or so. “The basketball IQ of this team is picking up overall, which is a nice thing to see at this point of the season.”
Diehl said Middletown (10-6), a winner of five straight, didn’t attempt to play the quick Coyotes in a man-to-man defense, which is all the Mustangs played a night earlier in a 69-68 win over Fort Bragg, but instead had to mix things up against the Coyotes, which is exactly what they did, giving Sonoma Academy several different defensive looks.
“We played some man but kept mixing it up against them, trying to keep them guessing a little bit,” Diehl said. “While we didn’t match up well with them, they don’t match up well with us in some ways.”
The Coyotes (9-3) certainly didn’t have an answer for Lloyd, a first-year varsity player who dominated down low at both ends of the floor.
It was a Lloyd basket that opened the fourth quarter followed by a Jon Hawkins putback of a Lloyd miss that gave the Mustangs a 43-36 lead, their biggest of the game to that point.
In a contest where the lead changed hands several times in the first three quarters, Middletown pushed ahead to stay with 1:55 left in the third quarter after guard Harrison Brown was fouled in the act of shooting. A Sonoma Academy player didn’t like the call and picked up a technical foul, sending Brown to the line for four free throws. He hit the first two but missed the next two to make it 35-33. Back-to-back Lloyd baskets made it 39-33 before Sonoma Academy’s Marcel Nsizoa Ndi (23 points) buried one of his six 3-points in the game to make it 39-36 by quarter’s end.
After Lloyd’s and Hawkins’ baskets to open the fourth quarter, Tadder stole the ball and scored on a layup to make it 45-36. Sonoma Academy hit another 3-pointer to close to 45-39, but another Tadder steal and layup with 5:56 left in the game made it 47-39.
EJ Rose put back a miss by a teammate to increased Middletown’s lead to 49-39. After Noah Martinez hit one of Sonoma Academy’s 15 3-pointers on the night to make it 49-42, Lloyd rebounded his own missed shot and scored for a 51-42 lead. And then Tadder struck again, this time with 2:18 left, stealing the ball and hitting a runner in the lane to make it 53-42.
The Coyotes’ penchant for hitting 3-pointers kept them in the game as Mack Mahoney and Nsizoa Ndi hit back-to-back treys, the latter with 1:00 minute remaining, to slice Middletown’s lead to 53-48.
Middletown turned the ball over on a five-second violation trying to inbound the ball with 32.4 seconds left, but the Coyotes failed to find the range on a pair of 3-point shots. Forced to foul, Sonoma Academy sent Brown to the free-throw line with 11.4 seconds remaining and he hit the first of two shots for a 54-48 lead. Nsizoa Ndi’s final 3-pointer with 1.9 seconds remaining made it 54-51, and the Coyotes quickly called a timeout. Middletown inbounded the ball with a deep pass down the court, but time expired before Sonoma Academy could get its hands on the ball.
In a game that had something of a playoff feel to it, especially with its exciting finish, Diehl said the Mustangs are finally beginning to blend the veteran experience they return from last season’s 24-8 club with the youngsters who are becoming a bigger part of this season’s squad with every passing game, such as Lloyd and second-year veterans Tadder and Brown, who finished with seven points and four assists.
Both Hawkins and EJ Rose had five points while Hawkins also pulled down seven rebounds and had six assists. Rose added four rebounds.
In the junior varsity game, Middletown won its third straight, 42-34, behind nine points and seven rebounds from Cody de Jong, seven from John Finney, who also had five rebounds and three steals, and six points apiece from Donovan Clark and Jovial Najd.
“Man, we were clicking,” Middletown head coach Mike Myers said. “We were absolutely clicking.”
Added Myers, “It all starts with our defense.”
Working with varsity head coach Jake Diehl, Myers said the JV Mustangs have “rebuilt the defense.”
Said Myers, “I have to give credit where credit is due. Jake has helped rebuild this defense. I wish I had this team at the start of the season.”
Middletown improved to 5-5.
In other non-league boys action Saturday:
Healdsburg 71, Clear Lake 46
At Healdsburg, Zane McAuley scored 21 points and Jesse Hayes added 10 as the Clear Lake Cardinals fell to the Healdsburg Greyhounds.
Clear Lake head coach Shady Cerezo said he wasn’t thrilled with the officiating as the Cardinals fell to 8-8 on the season.
“It was a very physical game, only to be called pretty one-sided in favor of the home team,” Cerezo said. “We fought hard and played through contact. Our guys played all 32 minutes, getting beat up but kept their cool. I’m proud of them for that.”
McAuley, a senior, needs 61 more points to reach 1,000 for his career.
