{"id":2356,"date":"2025-02-15T18:56:50","date_gmt":"2025-02-15T18:56:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=2356"},"modified":"2025-02-15T18:56:50","modified_gmt":"2025-02-15T18:56:50","slug":"lady-mustangs-clinch-co-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=2356","title":{"rendered":"Lady Mustangs clinch co-championship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mia Hoogendoorn, Harley Holley spark team in 57-39 victory over Clear Lake<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

MIDDLETOWN >> A 17-5 first quarter set the tone as Middletown beat the Clear Lake Cardinals 57-39 in North Central League I varsity girls basketball action Friday night in Middletown, the win giving the Mustangs at least a share of the league championship for the third time in four years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Middletown (12-2 league, 20-5 overall) and Kelseyville (12-2) finish tied atop the NCL I standings. Both teams will learn on Sunday who, when and where they will be playing next week when the North Coast Section playoffs get under way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur goal all along has been to win league,\u201d Middletown head coach Roxi Holt said. \u201cEverything else is just gravy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Middletown enters the postseason with starter Harley Holley back in the lineup. Holley scored 13 points against Clear Lake, second only to teammate Mia Hoogendoorn\u2019s 28, after missing the Mustangs\u2019 last five game with a knee injury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was really nice having her back in there,\u201d Holt said of the junior post player.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Mustangs remain without sophomore guard Jordyn Harbison (illness) entering the postseason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opening up a big lead early against the Cardinals (3-11, 6-18) is exactly what the Mustangs wanted to do, according to Holt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was a must-win game for us,\u201d Holt said. \u201cThe girls knew they had everything to lose. We came out and put it to them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Mustangs led by those same 12 points at halftime, 27-15. Middletown added a point to its lead in the third quarter before closing things out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe tightened up our defense a little bit in the fourth quarter,\u201d Holt said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While securing their 20th<\/sup> win of the season, the Mustangs also received nine points from Sarah Fetters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Middletown struggled from beyond the 3-point arc, hitting just two 3-pointers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe just decided to stop shooting them and concentrate on other parts of our offense,\u201d Holt said. \u201cThey just weren\u2019t falling for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faith McIntire\u2019s 19 points, 13 rebounds and two blocks led the Cardinals while Aliyah Valadez added seven points. Kaylah Billig and Emily Gersalia had nine rebounds apiece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clear Lake won the JV game 47-41. The Cardinals finish league play at 7-5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Middletown (8-4, 14-9) was led by Chloe Pulido with 12 points, Ally Cherry with 11 and Jolene Holley with 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTonight was a tough loss,\u201d Middletown head coach Daryl Dacosta said. \u201cClear Lake came out ready to play. They pressed us from the tip and we were having trouble breaking the press, which ultimately turned into turnovers and points on their side.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Added Dacosta, \u201cMy girls fought all the way until the end, but we just came up short.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GAME NOTES:<\/strong> The league title is the first for Holt at Middletown. She coached the Mustangs to a second-place finish in 2023, took a year off for maternity leave, and returned to the bench this season. Tony Hart led the team to a co-championship last season (sharing the title with Cloverdale), and Andy Brown was the Mustangs\u2019 head coach in 2022 when they went 13-0 in league play. Over the last four seasons \u2013 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25 \u2013 the Mustangs are 74-26 overall (.740) and 49-6 in league play (.891) \u2026 It\u2019s Middletown\u2019s first 20-win season since the 2015-16 squad went 23-7, which is the most wins ever for a Middletown girls team \u2026 Hoogendoorn is not only Middletown\u2019s all-time scoring leader (1,533 points), but also the school\u2019s single-season points leader among girls (570).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mia Hoogendoorn, Harley Holley spark team in 57-39 victory over Clear Lake Lake County Sports on Facebook MIDDLETOWN >> A 17-5 first quarter set the tone as Middletown beat the Clear Lake Cardinals 57-39 in North Central League I varsity girls basketball action Friday night in Middletown, the win giving the Mustangs at least a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,14,12,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2356"}],"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=2356"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2357,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2356\/revisions\/2357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}