Last season, after being the first team ever to close out the season as #1 in the five major High School Basketball Polls (Rivals High 100, the MaxPreps Xcellent 25, the USA Today Super 25, the ESPN RISE Fab 50, and the PrepNation National Prep Poll), the Yates Lions because of their almost complete roster turnover from last season were nowhere to be found in any of those polls’ 2010-11 pre-season Top 25 rankings.
After their 2010-11 season start of six straight wins going into the current week and averaging 112.5 ppg, the Lions finally found themselves getting some love from the pollsters by cracking the Top 25 of MaxPreps (#19) and USA Today (#24). They are #27 in the ESPN Rise Poll, #41 in the Rivals Poll, and #42 in the Prep Nation Poll.
With that in mind, on Tuesday night the Lions opened District 21-4A play at Barnett Fieldhouse with a 126-45 thrashing of the Davis Panthers. They used the district opener as a tuneup for some big games coming up in the next two weeks including: Madison on Saturday night (12/11) at Delmar Fieldhouse; national power Findlay Prep next Thursday (12/16) at Texas Southern University, which will be broadcast on ESPN; and the 71st annual Houston ISD Boys Basketball Tournament (see below for more information) on the weekend of December 17-20.
Yates’ win was its 65th straight over a span of almost two years, as the Panthers (2-8) gave it all they got and even led, 12-10, with 4:27 left in the first quarter. From there on it was all Yates, as Davis couldn’t match Yates’ height advantage and the usual full-court pressure.
The Lions (7-0) outscored Davis, 20-5, to close out the first quarter with a 30-17 lead. They then opened the second quarter with a 20-0 run and after a Panther three-pointer, Yates went on a 16-0 spurt. They outscored Davis, 36-3, in the second period to take a 66-20 halftime lead into the locker room.
Davis tried to run with the Lions by substituting five players at a time, but it was almost useless. The Lions led, 98-38, at the three-quarter mark and their third team held Davis to just seven points in the last period. The exhausted Panthers committed more turnovers (47) than points scored (45).
Yates had 14 players score and six had double-digits, led by: junior Damyeon Dotson with 19 points, six steals; senior Shai Fields with 17 points, six rebounds, eight steals; and junior Clyde Santee had 16 points, six rebounds, and five steals.
NEW STATE RANKINGS AND HOUSTON ISD FIELD RELEASED!
You can go to Sam Khan’s article to see the updated state basketball rankings for both the boys and the girls. The article also includes the pairings for the upcoming HISD Tournament, as well as the dates and times. (http://blogs.chron.com/prepsports/2010/12/hoops_new_state_rankings_and_h.html)
The Texas Association of Basketball Coaches posts its state rankings every Monday and the latest rankings show that in the Class 5A boys poll, Fort Bend Travis remains in the Top 10 at #2; Galveston Ball holds at #1in Class 4A while La Marque slid down a spot to #3 after suffering its first loss last week. Yates has moved up to #5.
Westbury Christian is #1 among large private schools.
The field and bracket for the 71st annual Houston ISD Boys Basketball Tournament has been released. The field is strong as usual. Yates returns to the tournament after skipping it last year in lieu of the Iolani Classic in Hawaii. Of course, all HISD teams will be in the field, including Bellaire, Jones, Madison, and Wheatley and a few non-HISD schools are in the field, including Westbury Christian and Second Baptist.
Comcast Sports Southwest (Comcast Channel 129) will broadcast the championship game and the third-place game of the tourney on Monday, December 20. The third place game is at 6 p.m. at Delmar Fieldhouse and the championship game follows at 7:30 p.m.
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