{"id":2490,"date":"2025-03-01T15:57:24","date_gmt":"2025-03-01T15:57:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=2490"},"modified":"2025-03-01T15:57:24","modified_gmt":"2025-03-01T15:57:24","slug":"knight-fall-76-61-in-third-place-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=2490","title":{"rendered":"Knight fall 76-61 in third-place game"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kyle Watkins scores 23 points in losing cause; Kelseyville to apply for NorCal at-large berth<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

KELSEYVILLE >> After a barnburner of a first half, the Kelseyville Knights struggled to match Sonoma Valley\u2019s offensive output and fell 76-61 to the Dragons in the North Coast Section Division 5 third-place game Friday night in Kelseyville<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelseyville (18-12) could have locked up a bid in next week\u2019s NorCal playoffs with a victory against Sonoma Valley (17-15), which was playing its fourth straight road game, but will now try to reach the state tournament as an at-large team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve submitted paperwork for an at-large berth,\u201d Kelseyville head coach Oscar Lopez. \u201cI hope we make it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NorCal field in all divisions will be announced Sunday. If Kelseyville makes it, there\u2019s no telling what division it could end up in, who it will be playing or where.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t care,\u201d Lopez said. \u201cWouldn\u2019t it be nice if we came away with a home game?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Knights certainly had the homecourt advantage on Friday night, Kelseyville fans packing the house, and the first half had supporters of both teams pretty excited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was fun, we were both going up and down the court,\u201d Lopez said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelseyville held a 20-18 advantage after one quarter and Sonoma took a 40-38 lead into halftime, jumping ahead in the final seconds of the second quarter on Dalan Lopata\u2019s putback basket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The running gun battle in the first half saw the Dragons open the second quarter with a 9-0 run for a 27-20 lead, but 3-pointers by Sebastian Chavez and Tyler Bryant quickly got the Knights right back into the game. They briefly recaptured the lead on a Gene Holdenried 3-pointer, putting them up 36-35, before Sonoma Valley pushed back in front 38-36. The final of Kyle Watkins\u2019 15 first-half points tied the game at 38 before Sonoma moved ahead just before the half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whereas the Dragons opened the second quarter with a run and the Knights quickly recovered, the same thing didn\u2019t happen during a decisive third quarter when the Dragons opened with an 11-1 run for a 51-39 lead. Kelseyville would never get closer than nine points the rest of the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe third quarter is what killed us,\u201d Lopez said. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t rebound; we couldn\u2019t control the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winning the battle on the boards helped the Knights stay right with the Dragons in the first half, even taking the lead at times, but the Sonoma Valley team did a much better job boxing out over the final two quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had some turnovers in the first half, too, but they capitalized on them in the third quarter,\u201d Lopez said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sonoma Valley\u2019s offense also hit the Kelseyville defense from all angles and in all ways, according to Lopez.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey had five guys score in double figures,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelseyville had just one \u2013 senior Kyle Watkins \u2013 who finished with 23 points, pushing to him to 1,100 for his career. Hudson Giarritta, a senior forward, led the Dragons with 24 points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe really outworked us,\u201d Lopez said of Giarritta. \u201cHe and Kyle went toe to toe all game.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Giarritta had plenty of help from Lopata (13 points), Grayson Sanders (13 points), Vinny Girish (12 points) and Connor Cooper (10 points).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelseyville\u2019s scoring fell way off after Watkins\u2019 23 points. Chavez finished with nine, all on 3-pointers, Holdenried added eight and Bryant five.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sonoma Valley had as much as a 23-point lead in the fourth quarter as the Knights continued to struggle on offense and defense. Two free throws by Watkins earlier in the final period made it a 62-51 game, and the Knights didn\u2019t score again until it was 74-51. Max Hommer hit a pair of free throws at that point while junior varsity call-up Nick Arredondo followed with a 3-pointer \u2013 Kelseyville\u2019s first basket of the quarter. A basket by Hommer and a 3-pointer by JV call-up Jair Carrillo accounted for the Knights\u2019 final points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the first half the guys were moving the ball and looking for scoring,\u201d Lopez said of the Knights. \u201cIt\u2019s almost like we went into a shell in the third quarter, and we never came out of it. I don\u2019t know why. They looked ready coming out of halftime.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Lopez is hoping to play at least one more game with his senior-dominated squad, he said if the Knights don\u2019t receive an at-large berth into the NorCals on Sunday that he\u2019s still proud of his team\u2019s many accomplishments this season, which include playing (to this point) four playoff games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unheard of us to play four playoff games,\u201d he said. \u201cIt shows that we have been successful, and we keep pushing our standards to a higher level. It\u2019s something for the new guys to chase.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for his many seniors, Lopez said everything they\u2019ve done for the school\u2019s athletic program in multiple sports speaks for itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey definitely reloaded our program with talent in football, basketball and baseball. They\u2019ve set standards for all those sports,\u201d Lopez added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Knights won the outright North Central League I championship in football this season and finished third in this season\u2019s NCL I basketball race, a late forfeit loss costing them a share of a second straight league championship. Many of the basketball team\u2019s seniors also have been instrumental in leading the Knights to back-to-back undefeated league championships in baseball (2023 and 2024).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one talented group,\u201d Lopez said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TEAM NOTES:<\/strong> The 2022-23 Upper Lake girls and the 2019-20 Clear Lake boys were the last two county basketball teams to reach the NorCals. Both made it to the second round (quarterfinals) \u2026 The last time two county teams made the NorCals in the same season (Middletown\u2019s boys are the other candidate) was in 1988-89 when both the Clear Lake boys and girls teams made it. In fact, those 1988-89 Clear Lake teams played a NorCal doubleheader at home in the first round (the boys lost and the girls went on to reach the NorCal finals against Menlo) \u2026 With exactly 1,100 career points, Watkins now ranks 35th on the list of the county\u2019s career scoring leaders. According to Lopez, he played exactly one game as a JV before being called up to the varsity his freshman season. One more effort like Friday night would put him around 31st on the list. He moved past three other Kelseyville standouts with his 23 points against Sonoma Valley, jumping over Paul Borghesani (1,077), Jeremy Linnell (1,080) and Paul Olson (1,086). Another Kelseyville alum, Stephanie Kencke, is just ahead of him at 1,111 … Reflecting on his team’s loss Friday night, Lopez said, “That’s the first time a team has out-run this season. I think tired legs finally caught up to us in that second half.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kyle Watkins scores 23 points in losing cause; Kelseyville to apply for NorCal at-large berth Lake County Sports on Facebook KELSEYVILLE >> After a barnburner of a first half, the Kelseyville Knights struggled to match Sonoma Valley\u2019s offensive output and fell 76-61 to the Dragons in the North Coast Section Division 5 third-place game Friday […]<\/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\/2490"}],"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=2490"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2491,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2490\/revisions\/2491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}