Mustangs hammer Willits 48-7

M'town collects fifth straight league victory

After giving a maximum effort Friday night in a big 53-37 road win against Cloverdale, the Middletown Mustangs were able to throttle back a bit and rest their starters in a 48-7 varsity girls basketball victory over the Willits Wolverines on Saturday afternoon at The Barn in Middletown.

“The girls all got to rest and after last night's game I was happy about that,” Middletown head coach Roxi Holt said.

Middletown's fifth straight North Central League I win puts the Mustangs in the thick of the league race. They have three games remaining next week, including another against Willits, and the Mustangs don't figure to lose again before the North Coast Section playoffs open later this month. The four teams still remaining in the league race are Fort Bragg (13-1), Clear Lake (122), Middletown (10-3) and Cloverdale (10-3). In order for the Mustangs to have any shot at winning some portion of the league title, they'll need to win all of their remaining games and hope that Fort Bragg loses its final two — at Clear Lake on Tuesday and at Cloverdale next Saturday, the final day of the regular season. If all of that happens, Clear Lake's game Thursday at Cloverdale will also figure prominently in which team(s) finish on top.

While there was no drama associated with Saturday's win over Willits, that's not always a bad thing, according to Holt, especially when don't have a large roster — just eight players strong — to begin with. One of those eight, senior point guard Jaidyn Brown, is nursing a knee injury and played sparingly against the Wolverines.

“Jaidyn played about half the

game,” Holt said. “She didn't score but she still contributed. When she's on the court she makes a difference for us.”

Middletown led 17-2 after one quarter and 31-2 at halftime.

Jaylee Doris, a reserve who was called up from the junior varsity squad earlier this season, scored a varsity-best 10 points, including a 3-pointer.

“She didn't play against Cloverdale but today she played a lot and she did

great,” Holt said. “She's going to be a big part of what we do next year.”

Skylar Williams' 13 points led the Mustangs against Willits and Mia Hoogendoorn added 11.

Besides a Monday game at Roseland University Prep, the Mustangs visit Willits on Tuesday before closing out their league and regular-season schedule Thursday at home against Roseland University Prep. The playoff field will be seeded on Feb. 11 and the Mustangs, now 17-6 overall, are headed for the postseason as either an at-large team or possibly a league co-champion.