Middletown boys roll past Upper Lake, Kelseyville drops first league game
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UPPER LAKE >> Until Friday night, the Upper Lake High School varsity boys basketball team had given every one of its North Central League I opponents a game. Until Friday night.
Middletown ended that streak with a couple of exclamation points thrown in for good measure, blitzing the Cougars 80-36 in an ultra-lopsided contest that ended with a running clock. The Mustangs raced out to a big lead in the first quarter and simply kept adding to it, and it didn’t matter much when Middletown head coach Jake Diehl went to his bench early, playing starter Harrison Brown (20 points) with four reserves for a lengthy stretch, then all reserves for a time in the second quarter.
“Very cohesive,” Middletown head coach Jake Diehl said of the team’s effort, both starters and backups alike. “We’re getting strong as a team, united, of one mind.”
While the likes of Brown (three 3-pointers), Jon Hawkins (19 points, 10 rebounds, five blocks, four assists) and Willie Tadder (11 points) pretty much did what they wanted against the Cougars (1-5 league, 6-10 overall), Middletown’s reserves were nearly as effective, led by Leland Pike’s eight points and two 3-pointers.
“Even the bench was going,” Diehl said. “They knew their assignments and played their positions super well. I’m proud of them all.”
Middletown’s seventh straight win combined with a Cloverdale 60-46 win at Kelseyville, leaves the Mustangs tied with the Knights, the only team that has beaten Middletown in league play so far, atop the NCL I standings. Those teams face off again Jan. 27 in Middletown.
Hawkins and sophomore center Emmitt Lloyd (seven points, 10 rebounds, two blocks) had the Cougars back on their heels from the start. The smaller Cougars couldn’t cope with either Middletown’s size or aggressiveness on defense, according to assistant coach Thomas Santana.
“Middletown played hard defensively and we get a little intimidated with their (Mustangs’) size right from the start,” Santana said.
Added head coach Tony Lopez of the Mustangs, “You can tell they hit the weight room. They have a lot of football players.”
“We don’t have bigs,” Santana said of his front court, “but you still have to be go at them the best you can and we didn’t do a very good job of that.”
While Hawkins certainly had a night, including three slam dunks – a two-handed one in the first half and two one-handed wheelhouse slams in the second half – and Upper Lake’s coaching staff definitely took notice, Santana said Brown, the Mustangs’ junior point guard, was equally impressive, just in different ways.
“No. 5 can hurt you from all over,” Santana said. “He shoots from the outside, he drives inside.”
“He’s our general on the court,” Diehl said of Brown.
“Three (Hawkins’ number) is a great player,” Lopez said.
Wyatt Hallman’s nine points led the Cougars. Shaun Way added eight more while Mason Parker and Tj Malicay had six apiece.
“It just wasn’t our night,” Santana said.
Middletown (5-1, 12-6) closes out the first half of its league schedule Tuesday in Lakeport as part of a four-game set with Clear Lake. Upper Lake travels to St. Helena.
Middletown’s junior varsity squad also continued its hot play of late, beating Upper Lake 65-32 behind 14 points and six rebounds from John Finney, eight points from Donovan Clark, seven points, five rebounds, three steals and two blocks from Koa Johnson and seven points from Jovial Najd.
The Mustangs (4-2, 8-4) have won five straight.
Upper Lake (0-6, 0-10) was led by Chase Noble with 11 points, Isaia Pena with nine and Angelo Macias with eight.
“The transition from the press killed us today,” Upper Lake head coach Wyatt Hensley said. “We made bad pass selections and racked up turnovers.”
In other NCL I boys action Friday:
Cloverdale 60, Kelseyville 46
At Kelseyville, the Kelseyville Knights dropped into a first-place tie with Middletown after dropping one to a Cloverdale Eagles squad that built a big lead early and never looked back.
Just as they did Tuesday in a triple-overtime win against Clear Lake, the Knights (5-1, 7-9) spotted their opponent a big lead – Cloverdale was up 22-7 after one quarter – only this time the Knights couldn’t make up that ground.
“Not a good shooting night for us,” Kelseyville head coach Chaze Russell said. “Not from 3s, not from the free-throw line, not from anywhere. We missed 10 layups.”
Added Russell, “We dug too big a hole and we couldn’t dig ourselves out.”
Cloverdale’s Jesus Arizmendi did most of the digging, torching the Kelseyville defense for 34 points, 12 of them in the first quarter. He finished with six 3-pointers.
“They took the life right out of us in the first quarter,” Russell said. “The effort was there in the second half, but we just couldn’t do enough (on offense) to catch them. Hopefully we can walk away from this learning something. It’s a tough loss, hopefully we can bounce back.”
Gordon Astrup’s 15 points powered the Knights while Nick Arredondo added 18 points and Jake Amendola eight.
Cloverdale is 3-3 in league play and 10-8 overall.
In JV action, Kelseyville (5-1, 7-5) beat Cloverdale (4-2) to move into sole possession of first place with a 65-34 win. While it was a game in the first half, the Knights ran away in the second half, outscoring Cloverdale 36-12.
“They came out and played well,” Kelseyville head coach Stan Weiper said of the final two quarters for the Knights. “They’re starting to respond to the things I’ve been working on with them and they’re starting to run them a little better.”
Weiper said the Knights are more than capable of bringing home a league championship if they continue to improve the way they have been the past few games.
“I believe we have the best team (in the league) if we play like we’re capable of playing,” Weiper said.
Darin Sprague led the Knights with 23 points and Chris Salmina added 11. William Clark had nine points in limited playing time off the bench.
Lower Lake 73, Clear Lake 67
At Lower Lake, playing their best second half of the season, the Lower Lake Trojans rallied from a 41-29 halftime deficit to upend the Clear Lake Cardinals despite 25 points and five 3-ponters from Zane McAuley, who needs just nine more points to reach 1,000 for his career.
Lower Lake counterpunched with 31 points from sophomore Noah Hakala, who also had eight rebounds.
“Noah was very active,” Lower Lake head coach Jay Jakubowski said. “Obviously the best we’ve played in the second half this season. We’ve played a lot of good games, but we haven’t been able to finish.”
Overall, Jakubowski said the Trojans (2-4, 8-9) “made better decisions,” were patient running their offense in the second half and cut down their turnovers over the final two quarters.
Tucker Benson had a double-double of 13 point and 10 rebounds while Kaimelo Connolly added 12 points and Raijhier McKneely 10. Hakala and McKneely each had two 3-pointers.
Fort the Cardinals (3-3, 8-10), Eric Chavez finished with 14 points and AJ Bruch had 13.
Lower Lake hosts Cloverdale on Tuesday while Clear Lake hosts Middletown to close out the first half of their league schedules.
In JV action, Clear Lake beat Lower Lake 63-49 despite 33 points from the Trojans’ Roy Percoats.
“Roy Percoats had an incredible game,” Lower Lake head coach Latoya Fortino said. “The game was neck and neck until the third quarter.”
Adrian Guzman scored seven points and Zane Maninger had five for Lower Lake.
“Another tough game but I still believe this team hasn’t reached its full potential,” Fortino said. “I see glimpses of it and I can’t wait until they finally play fully into it the way I know they can.”
Lower Lake is 2-4 in league and 9-7 overall. Clear Lake is 4-2 and 11-7.
