{"id":2323,"date":"2025-02-13T19:14:42","date_gmt":"2025-02-13T19:14:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=2323"},"modified":"2025-02-13T19:14:42","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T19:14:42","slug":"mtown-boys-clinch-tie-for-league-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=2323","title":{"rendered":"M’town boys clinch tie for league title"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

67-52 home win over Clear Lake secures no worse than co-championship for Mustangs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

MIDDLETOWN >> Middletown jumped to a 25-11 lead after one quarter and beat Clear Lake 67-52 on Wednesday night in Middletown to clinch no worse than a share of the North Central League I varsity boys basketball championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Middletown finished 12-2 in league play and is now 20-6 overall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Mustangs will now await the outcome of Thursday\u2019s game between Upper Lake (4-9) and St. Helena (11-2) in St. Helena to find out if they\u2019ll enter next week\u2019s North Coast Section playoffs as the undisputed league champion or as co-champions. If St. Helena beats Upper Lake to earn a co-championship, Middletown will travel to St. Helena on Friday night for a special playoff game that is used for section playoff seeding purposes. The Friday game, if held, has no bearing on the outcome of the league race, which ends Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The North Coast Section will announce playoff pairings in all divisions Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe kept our heads down and stuck to the gameplan,\u201d Middletown head coach Jake Diehl said. \u201cBeyond proud of this team as a whole. Championship teams are special, and this squad had constantly proven themselves by overcoming adversity time and time again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bodhi Moore\u2019 s 26 points led the Mustangs while Jon Hawkins was right behind him with 24, including four dunks. Hawkins also pulled down a team-best 10 rebounds for a double-double.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited that we get to keep competing,\u201d Diehl said with a look ahead to the playoffs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sawyer Smith\u2019s 19 points paced the Cardinals (7-7, 12-13) while Zane McAuley added 13 in the team\u2019s league and regular-season finale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMiddletown jumped out to an early lead in the first half,\u201d Clear Lake head coach Mark Cory said. \u201cWe played much better in the second half. Sawyer shot the ball well tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Added Cory, \u201cThe boys played hard and competed to the end. I am proud of my team, and we had a good season.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Middletown also won the junior varsity game, 79-61.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe fellas finished strong like I knew they would,\u201d Middletown head coach Andy Brown said of the Mustangs\u2019 league and season finale. \u201cA win against Clear Lake is always a good way to end the season. We were rough around the edges but capitalized when we needed to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Finney\u2019s 22 points led a balanced Middletown attack. Leland Pike added 15 points, including four 3-pointers, Valentin Jimenez had 13 points and 14 rebounds, and Kolton Costlow had 12 points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ayden Moreno\u2019s 22 points powered the Cardinals, who end up 6-8 in league play. Gael Moreno added 11 points, Joey Portlock had nine and Nolan Buffalo eight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was a tough way to end the season,\u201d Clear Lake head coach Shady Cerezo said. \u201cWe were missing two players due to illness. We got into foul trouble early in the game and with seven players suited up, we had an uphill battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cProud of my guys for the work they\u2019ve put in,\u201d Cerezo added. \u201cI felt that they\u2019ve gotten better throughout the season as basketball players and as young men. It\u2019s been a pleasure to watch them grow.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

67-52 home win over Clear Lake secures no worse than co-championship for Mustangs Lake County Sports on Facebook MIDDLETOWN >> Middletown jumped to a 25-11 lead after one quarter and beat Clear Lake 67-52 on Wednesday night in Middletown to clinch no worse than a share of the North Central League I varsity boys basketball […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,12,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323"}],"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=2323"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2324,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323\/revisions\/2324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}