{"id":2430,"date":"2025-02-22T20:12:51","date_gmt":"2025-02-22T20:12:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=2430"},"modified":"2025-02-22T20:12:51","modified_gmt":"2025-02-22T20:12:51","slug":"fortuna-ends-middletowns-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=2430","title":{"rendered":"Fortuna ends Middletown’s season"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Huskies pull away in third quarter, beat Mustangs 60-47 in Division 3 girls quarterfinals<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brian Sumpter<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

MIDDLETOWN >> The Middletown Mustangs appeared to be on their way to another win, this time against Fortuna High School in the quarterfinals of the Division 3 girls basketball playoffs Friday night at Middletown High School, but the Huskies, and especially junior guard Macee Marquez, made sure that didn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marquez, who played a major role in Fortuna\u2019s 47-29 first-round win over Kelseyville Tuesday at Kelseyville, struck again, this time with 23 points, including six 3-pointers \u2013 four in the second half \u2013 as the Huskies ended the Middletown Mustangs\u2019 season, and the outstanding career of Mia Hoogendoorn, 60-47.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marquez didn\u2019t single-handedly beat the Mustangs (21-6), but she certainly came up big during crunch time. Middletown scored the first basket of the third quarter to open up a 35-27 lead \u2013 its biggest of the game \u2013 only to watch it disappear in a matter of minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe couldn\u2019t rotate (the defense) fast enough on those 3-pointers,\u201d Middletown head coach Roxi Holt said of the Huskies\u2019 crisp passing around the perimeter. \u201cOur hat\u2019s off to them. They played a great game.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marquez buried the first of her four second-half 3-pointers with 6:02 left in the third quarter to tie the game at 35-35, the first time since late in the first quarter than the Mustangs weren\u2019t in the lead. A Fortuna free throw briefly put the Huskies in front, but a Jaylee Doris 3-pointer gave Middletown a 38-36 ead. Fortuna answered with a 7-0 run capped by a Marquez 3-pointer that made it 43-38 in the Huskies\u2019 favor. They never looked back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Mustangs missed a chance to close the gap after sinking just one of four free throws over the next couple of minutes, right before the game took a decisive turn as Kalie Chittenden buried a 3-pointer, was fouled on the play, and added the free throw for a 47-39 Fortuna lead with less than a minute to go in the quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Middletown was able to get a point closer by quarter\u2019s end, but the damage had been done and there really wasn\u2019t much the Mustangs could do about it. A gassed Hoogendoorn needed a break but there was no way Holt could pull her out of the game at that point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNot if we wanted to remain competitive,\u201d Holt said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A little more than a minute into the fourth quarter Marquez buried another 3-pointer that was briefly offset by a Doris 3-pointer. The Huskies put back a miss for a 53-44 lead, at which point Sarah Fetters drained a 3-pointer following a 3-point miss by teammate Hoogendoorn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any thoughts of a comeback ended with another Marquez 3-pointer, a shot from the corner that pushed the Huskies\u2019 lead to 56-47. Middletown then turned the ball over, setting up a layup by Olivia Scilacci. A putback basket by Evalynn Little, who did a good job rebounded the ball on both ends for the Huskies, closed out the scoring with 1:32 remaining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey were fast and aggressive,\u201d Holt said of the Huskies. \u201cThey played tight man defense, we expected that, but we didn\u2019t expect them to take away the middle from us and our ability to drive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Half of Fortuna\u2019s points came on 10 3-pointers. Jorlynn Villalvazo added 10 points as the Huskies benefited from a balanced attack that also featured eight points by Mariah Bravo and six apiece from Chittenden and Taylor Heussler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat had other girls besides her (Marquez) that could shoot the three, which made it tougher to stop them,\u201d Holt said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortuna led 12-5 in the first quarter before Middletown came alive on offense and scored 13 of the next 16 points. Fetters was especially hot, scoring eight of her 12 points in the quarter. Hoogendoorn also had six of her team-leading 14 in the opening period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The teams spent the second quarter trading baskets, the half ending with Middletown up 33-27.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doris, one of two Middletown seniors, finished with eight points in her final high school game while freshman Izzi Hoogendoorn had six.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mia Hoogendoorn, her next step college, closed out the season with 599 points, pushing her career total to 1,562. She is Middletown\u2019s all-time career scoring leader, and the 599 points are the most by a Mustang girl in a single season. In terms of career points, she ranks sixth on the county\u2019s all-time list, fourth among girls. The 599 points is the 13th<\/sup>-best single-season total in county history, sixth among girls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNever did we every imagine this is what she would do,\u201d Holt said of her daughter\u2019s amazing senior season and career. \u201cShe\u2019s incredible. She works year-round, there is no offseason for her. She\u2019ll take any opportunity to get better. She\u2019s still a presence on the court even when she\u2019s not scoring. We\u2019re definitely going to miss her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holt said the Mustangs had absolutely no reason to feel bad about Friday\u2019s loss considering the season they put together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m proud of the girls, they had a great season,\u201d Holt said. \u201cWe were fortunate enough to get two home (playoff) games. We did what we came to accomplish this season.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Middletown tied Kelseyville for the North Central League I championship, giving the Mustangs three league titles in four years. They return starters Izzi Hoogendoorn, Harley Harley and Jordyn Harbison (missed the playoffs because of illness) next season along with Fetters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Middletown’s Mia Hoogendoorn scores two of her team-leading 14 points on Friday night in a 60-47 playoff loss to the Fortuna Huskies at Middletown High School. (Photo by Brian Sumpter)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Huskies pull away in third quarter, beat Mustangs 60-47 in Division 3 girls quarterfinals By Brian Sumpter Lake County Sports on Facebook MIDDLETOWN >> The Middletown Mustangs appeared to be on their way to another win, this time against Fortuna High School in the quarterfinals of the Division 3 girls basketball playoffs Friday night at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,12,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2430"}],"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=2430"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2433,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2430\/revisions\/2433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}