{"id":5197,"date":"2026-01-10T19:28:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T19:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=5197"},"modified":"2026-01-10T19:28:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T19:28:15","slug":"stangs-knights-cards-win-at-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=5197","title":{"rendered":"‘Stangs, Knights, Cards win at home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

MHS boys edge Fort Bragg 69-68 for second straight one-point win<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

MIDDLETOWN >> Seventeen lead changes and two Jon Hawkins dunks later, the Middletown Mustangs held off the Fort Bragg Timberwolves 69-68 in a North Central League I varsity boys basketball battle at Middletown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was the second straight one-point league victory for the Mustangs (3-1 league, 9-6 overall), following on the heels of a 65-64 road win Tuesday at Lower Lake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere were quite a few lead changes,\u201d Middletown head coach Jake Diehl said. \u201cIt was a battle royale.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fort Bragg (1-2) sank a 3-pointer with seven seconds left to cut Middletown\u2019s lead to 69-68. With the clock running, Middletown used nearly all of the five seconds allowed to inbound the ball, according to Diehl. A pass down the court used up the remaining seconds, denying Fort Bragg any chance at a game-winning shot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHeads-up play,\u201d Diehl said of his team\u2019s late clock management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several Mustangs had their fingerprints all over the win, according to Diehl, including sophomore Willie Tadder, who helped shut down Fort Bragg\u2019s top scorer in the fourth quarter, holding him to six points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clutch free-throw shooting also played a pick part in the victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHarrison (Brown) hit two free throws to put us up by four (69-65),\u201d Diehl said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emmitt Lloyd, the Mustangs\u2019 top scorer with 23 points, and Jon Hawkins, who added 20, also sank a pair of free throws down the stretch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re heading in the right direction,\u201d Diehl said. \u201cPointing in the direction of jelling as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hawkins, a senior, did everything possible to get the Mustangs a win. Besides his 20 points, he pulled down a team-best 12 rebounds, blocked six shots and had five assists. He put an exclamation point on his performance with a pair of third-quarter dunks \u2013 the first one one-handed, the second one a two-hand slam \u2013 to bring the crowd to its feet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brown, Middletown\u2019s junior point guard, ran the offense exceptionally well, according to Diehl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe is leading the team,\u201d Diehl said. \u201cHe\u2019s moving the ball around well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brown finished with eight points and six assists. Tadder had nine points, including a 3-pointer, and Lloyd joined Hawkins in posting a double-double as the sophomore center had 10 rebounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In junior varsity action, Middletown beat Fort Bragg 70-28 behind 16 points and 11 rebounds from Jovial Najd, 11 points from Donovan Clark, eight from Koa Johnson, and seven from Hudson Kelley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The energy on our team right now is insane,” Middletown head coach Mike Myers said. “Our defense is phenomenal.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a totally different team (since the end of the winter break), which is a good thing to see,\u201d Myers said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Middletown improved to 2-2 in league and 5-4 overall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Middletown\u2019s teams are home Saturday to play Sonoma Academy in non-league action. The JV boys play at 2:30 p.m. and the varsity boys at 5:30 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelseyville 59, Upper Lake 52<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Kelseyville, Nick Arredondo heated up from the perimeter as the Kelseyville Knights (4-0 league, 6-8 overall) remained the only undefeated team atop the NCL I standings with a hard-fought win over the tough-luck Upper Lake Cougars (0-4, 6-9).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arredondo, in a bit of a slump of late, found the range on four 3-pointers while leading the Knights with 20 points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s going to be that way through the whole league schedule,\u201d Kelseyville head coach Chaze Russell said of the competitive nature of this year\u2019s NCL I race, with several teams in the running and others capable of pulling off an upset on a given night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey (Cougars) played us hard all night,\u201d Russell said. \u201cThey never went away.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelseyville was never ahead by much \u2013 8-7 after one quarter, 25-23 at halftime and 41-37 through three quarters. The Knights had as much as an eight-point lead in the fourth quarter, but Upper Lake quickly cut that to a five-point deficit by hitting a 3-pointer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upper Lake finished with a dozen 3-pointers to Kelseyville\u2019s six treys. The Cougars had opportunities down the stretch to catch the Knights, according to Russell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThankfully they missed a couple of 3s,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jair Inostroza Carrillo (12 points) and Jacob Amendola (10 points) joined Arredondo in double digits while Gordon Astrup just missed with nine points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upper Lake has lost its last three league games by seven, six and three (in overtime) points, so the Cougars aren\u2019t missing by much in a competitive NCL I.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnother tough loss in a close, back-and-forth game,\u201d Upper Lake assistant coach Thomas Santana said. \u201cWe continue to show that we can compete with anyone. The scores just aren\u2019t going our way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tj Malicay\u2019s 16 points powered the Cougars while Gage Faalelea, Landen Robinson and Wyatt Hallman each had nine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur boys show heart night in and night out, they\u2019re not giving up,\u201d Santana said. \u201cWe couldn’t contain No. 22 (Arredondo) from hitting the corner 3s.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Malicay hit four 3-pointrs for the Cougars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTj Malicay continues to show how good he is,\u201d Santana said. \u201cHe struggled early to get the ball to fall but didn’t give up and ended up with four 3-pointers. We’re proud of how aggressive our team is and we’ve been hearing great things from other coaches around the league.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In JV action, Kelseyville pulled into a first-place atop the league standings with an 82-28 victory over Upper Lake. The Knights improved to 3-1 in league play, the same record as Clear Lake, Cloverdale and St. Helena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Darin Sprague\u2019s 21 points powered the Knights while Chris Salmina finished with 15 points. Hugh O\u2019Boyle and Colt Lasbury each had nine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was good to get a lot of kids into the game,\u201d Kelseyville head coach Stan Weiper said. \u201cThe kids came out with a little more gusto (after tough losses to Fortuna and St. Helena).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twelve of Kelseyville\u2019s 13 players scored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Knights put the game away early, going up 22-3 after one quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adam Isaacson\u2019s seven points led Upper Lake (0-4, 0-8). Isaia Pena had six and Billy Pimentel four.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelseyville\u2019s teams are on the road Tuesday against Clear Lake in Lakeport. Upper Lake\u2019s teams return home to play Lower Lake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clear Lake 60, Cloverdale 49<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Lakeport, AJ Bruch scored 22 points and Zane McAuley added 15 more as Clear Lake snapped a six-game losing streak with a league win over the Cloverdale Eagles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clear Lake (3-1, 8-7) outscored Cloverdale 23-9 in the first quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt felt good to snap our losing streak,\u201d Clear Lake head coach Shady Cerezo said. \u201cI want to thank my coaches, Jaron Mertle and Adrian Perez, for holding the fort down while I was in the hospital all week. They did a great job running practice and game planning for Cloverdale.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clear Lake took a 41-24 lead into halftime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur team played with a lot of energy from the start and the birthday boy, Zane, got us going in the first,\u201d Cerezo said. \u201cI\u2019m really proud of our guys for getting after it. AJ had a great game attacking the basket, and our bigs, Kaden (Graham), Ryken (Villanueva) and Copper (Garrity), did a great job on the glass along with Tony (Moreno). Jesse played great defense on one of their top players. It was an overall great team effort.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With his 15 points Friday, McAuley needs 82 more to reach 1,000 for his career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cloverdale won the JV game. The final score was not reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clear Lake\u2019s teams host Kelseyville on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St. Helena 56, Lower Lake 41<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Lower Lake, the Lower Lake Trojans fell to the St. Helena Saints in what Lower Lake head coach Jay Jakubowski called a \u201cvery physical game.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaimelo Connolly and Steven Rich scored eight points apiece for Lower Lake (1-3, 7-8) while Adrian Negrete and Noah Hakala each had five.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St. Helena won the JV game 57-44 despite 24 points from Lower Lake\u2019s Roy Percoats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNot a bad game,\u201d Lower Lake head coach Latoya Fortino said. \u201cWe made some mistakes but also did some good things. St. Helena did a better job of finishing their shots. They also hit some key 3s that put them ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ryder Steffen scored 12 points for the Trojans (1-3, 8-6) while Adrian Guzman and Zane Maninger had four points apiece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lower Lake\u2019s teams are on the road Tuesday against Upper Lake.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MHS boys edge Fort Bragg 69-68 for second straight one-point win Lake County Sports on Facebook MIDDLETOWN >> Seventeen lead changes and two Jon Hawkins dunks later, the Middletown Mustangs held off the Fort Bragg Timberwolves 69-68 in a North Central League I varsity boys basketball battle at Middletown. It was the second straight one-point […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,16,20,58,12,17,18,19,59,15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5197"}],"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=5197"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5199,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5197\/revisions\/5199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}