{"id":2434,"date":"2025-02-23T17:57:17","date_gmt":"2025-02-23T17:57:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=2434"},"modified":"2025-02-23T17:59:00","modified_gmt":"2025-02-23T17:59:00","slug":"semifinals-next-stop-for-stangs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=2434","title":{"rendered":"Semifinals next stop for ‘Stangs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Middletown boys advance with 43-40 win over Mission San Jose in quarterfinals<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

MIDDLETOWN >> If you haven\u2019t figured it out by now, the Middletown Mustangs have no intention of going quickly let alone quietly in the North Coast Section Division 4 boys basketball playoffs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Playing another low-scoring, defense-dominated game against a high school nearly five times their enrollment, the Mustangs turned out the lights on Mission San Jose\u2019s 2024-25 season, beating the Fremont-based Warriors 43-40 in a quarterfinal-round game Saturday night at Tallman Gym.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was the second straight postseason win for the Mustangs \u2013 a school record in the Division 4 playoffs \u2013 and their 23rd<\/sup> win overall, which ties another school record for most wins in a single season. They go after victory No. 24 on Wednesday night at home against St. Patrick\/St. Vincent of Vallejo at 7 p.m., needing a win to reach the Division 4 championship game either Friday, Feb. 28 or Saturday, March 1 against the winner between Piedmont and Windsor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This game turned in Middletown\u2019s favor during a 13-5 third quarter, giving the Mustangs a 36-29 lead going to the final period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur identity is defense, and we weren\u2019t letting them shoot,\u201d Middletown head coach Jake Diehl said. \u201cTheir game is transition, and we allowed only one transition basket all night.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the No. 2-seeded Mustangs (23-6) may identify as a defensive team, their fans are also enjoying what they do when in possession of the basketball, and if the person handling that ball is junior forward Jon Hawkins, look the heck out. Hawkins had two big dunks while leading the team to a 48-47 victory over Arroyo High School of San Lorenzo in first-round action Wednesday, and he added another dunk, this time a wind-it-up, one-handed slam following a steal to help fuel the team\u2019s third-quarter push.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBiggest hammer I\u2019ve seen yet,\u201d Diehl said of Hawkins\u2019 spectacular slam dunk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hawkins again led the Mustangs in scoring (14 points), including a 7-for-10 night at the free-throw line and one of the team\u2019s four 3-pointers. He also pulled down 10 rebounds for a double-double while blocking five shots. Harrison Brown, a sophomore, added 10 points, including a pair of 3-pointers, Anthony Bowerman and Jasiah Pike finished with six points apiece, and Bodhi Moore had five.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it was the defense Diehl kept going back to while relishing the team\u2019s second straight win against a Division 2 school playing down in the Division 4 playoffs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe outrebounded them 37-26, we had a lot of tipped balls,\u201d Diehl said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pike led the team with 12 rebounds much to Diehl\u2019s delight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was an animal,\u201d Diehl said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Middletown benefited from Mission San Jose\u2019s limited offensive punch as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t have as many shooters as Arroyo,\u201d Diehl said. \u201cWe held their best shooter to no 3-pointers. They only had one 3-pointer against us, that in the second quarter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Added Diehl of his players, \u201cI\u2019m proud of what they did against a good team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Middletown\u2019s next opponent, the St. Patrick\/St. Vincent, is the No. 11 seed in the original 16-team Division 4 field, but that hasn\u2019t stopped the Bruins from mowing down a couple of Division 2 teams themselves. They upset No. 6 Casa Grande 57-53 in first-round action before knocking off No. 3 El Cerrito 55-52 in the quarterfinals Saturday night. A private school, St. Patrick\/St. Vincent is a Division 5 team playing up in Division 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re legitimate,\u201d Diehl said. \u201cIt\u2019s time for us to put our big boy pants on. It should be fun. Our guys are rolling. They\u2019re at a different level of their game.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GAME NOTES:<\/strong> The only other Middletown boys team to win 23 games in a season was the 2015-16 team (23-7) \u2026 The section playoffs have a third-place game this year that will feature the Middletown-St. Patrick\/St. Vincent and Windsor-Piedmont losers. That game will be played on either Feb. 28 or March 1 \u2026 The NorCal playoffs, part of the CIF State Championships, begin the week of March 3 \u2026 Between Middletown and Kelseyville in the Division 5 playoffs, Lake County could have two different teams reach the NorCals this year, which would be a record \u2026 Both the Mustangs and Knights are gunning for Lake County\u2019s first section title by a boys team since Clear Lake did it in 1989 (current Lower Lake head coach Anthony Farrington was part of that team). The last county girls team to win a section title was Upper Lake in 1994 (Upper Lake High School principal Dr. Annie Pivniska Petrie was part of that team).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Middletown’s Jon Hawkins slams home two points during a 43-40 win over Mission San Jose of Fremont during a North Coast Section Division 4 quarterfinal-round game Saturday night at Middletown High School. (Photo courtesy of Minenna Photography)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Middletown boys advance with 43-40 win over Mission San Jose in quarterfinals Lake County Sports on Facebook MIDDLETOWN >> If you haven\u2019t figured it out by now, the Middletown Mustangs have no intention of going quickly let alone quietly in the North Coast Section Division 4 boys basketball playoffs. Playing another low-scoring, defense-dominated game against […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2434"}],"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=2434"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2439,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2434\/revisions\/2439"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}