{"id":1551,"date":"2024-12-03T16:24:41","date_gmt":"2024-12-03T16:24:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=1551"},"modified":"2024-12-03T16:24:41","modified_gmt":"2024-12-03T16:24:41","slug":"knights-battle-back-in-46-43-road-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=1551","title":{"rendered":"Knights battle back in 46-43 road loss"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Down by as many as 17 points, Kelseyville varsity boys rally against McKinleyville<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lake County Sports on Facebook<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MCKINLEYVILLE >> Down by as many as 17 points in the first half, the Kelseyville Knights were one shot away from taking the lead in the final minute Monday night against the McKinleyville Panthers in non-league varsity boys basketball action at McKinleyville.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was an interesting last minute,\u201d Kelseyville head coach Oscar Lopez as the Knights just came up short, falling 46-43 in a game where they had opportunities to win it at the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe missed four free throws in the final minute,\u201d Lopez said. \u201cWe had our chances.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelseyville (0-2) whittled McKinleyville\u2019s lead down to two and had the ball but couldn\u2019t get off a shot. The Panthers ended up hitting a free throw to go back up by three points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was a good road test early on,\u201d Lopez said of the silver lining for the Knights. \u201cWe\u2019re moving in the right direction as we gear up for league.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelseyville, the North Central League I co-champion along with St. Helena last season, has dropped two road games \u2013 to Terra Nova and McKinleyville \u2013 to open its 2024-25 schedule and the Knights return home Thursday night to take on defending North Coast Section Division 4 champion and state runner-up Justin-Siena (0-1), the team that ended the Knights\u2019 season a year ago with a 91-37 win in the opening round of the sectional playoffs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Against McKinleyville, the Knights started slow and trailed 18-5 after one quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was almost like we were intimidated,\u201d Lopez said of the Knights\u2019 tentative play in the first few minutes. \u201cOnce we found ourselves, we began to play well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kyle Watkins\u2019 offense and defense helped the Knights battle back as did Ryder Leary\u2019s play off the bench. Watkins led the team with 18 points, but he also helped shut down McKinleyville\u2019s top scorer, holding him to two points in the second half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cKyle was just consistent for us,\u201d Lopez said. \u201cWhen we put him on their top guy, that\u2019s when we began to make a move.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trailing 33-25 aft halftime and 41-31 going to the fourth quarter, the Knights continued to close in on the Panthers with some smart play by Leary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRyder played great off the bench and hit some big shots down the stretch, especially when we got down seven in that chaotic final minute,\u201d Lopez said. \u201cHe hit a three to put us down four. He also had a shot at the end of the half to get us back within 10.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leary joined Watkins in double digits with 13 points. Tyler Bryant added five points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Knights finished with four 3-pointers \u2013 one each by Watkins, Leary, Bryant and Brock Barrick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelseyville\u2019s defense played well throughout most of the game, according to Lopez, including forcing two jump balls in the final minute of the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe just kept battling,\u201d Lopez said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McKinleyville also won the junior varsity game, beating Kelseyville 49-29 despite 12 points from Jacob Amendola and eight from Nick Arredondo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelseyville\u2019s JVs, now 0-2, are on the road Wednesday to play Hamilton City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Down by as many as 17 points, Kelseyville varsity boys rally against McKinleyville Lake County Sports on Facebook MCKINLEYVILLE >> Down by as many as 17 points in the first half, the Kelseyville Knights were one shot away from taking the lead in the final minute Monday night against the McKinleyville Panthers in non-league varsity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,12,17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1551"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1551"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1552,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1551\/revisions\/1552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}