YATES NEW WINNING STREAK AT TWO!

After having their 66-game winning streak ended on Thursday night in front of a national TV audience vs. Findlay Prep, the Yates Lions first loss since 12/20/2008, the Lions are on another winning streak.


The new streak is up to two and counting, as the Lions took care of the Saints Saturday (12/18), not the New Orleans Saints, but St. John’s and St. Thomas.


In the afternoon at Barnett Fieldhouse, the Lions beat the St. John’s Mavericks (8-9) fairly easily after a slow start, 74-50, in the second round of the Houston ISD Tournament. Yates drew a bye in the first round.



Yates fans must have been at the mall Xmas shopping

 In their first game after the Findlay loss, there was no big crowd at Barnett pulling for Yates like it was on Thursday night vs. Findlay. As a matter of fact, the St. John’s fan contingent outnumbered the sparse following of Yates supporters. Either many Yates fans were Christmas shopping or are just plain bandwagoners.


In the evening, the action moved to Delmar Fieldhouse, where Yates faced St. Thomas (16-6), which earlier in the day had a come-from-behind win, 57-55, over Westside HS. As the Lions did earlier in the day vs. St. John’s, they started off slowly vs. St. Thomas, but pulled away in the second quarter and shot down the high-flying Eagles, 86-68.


Last year’s Yates team played hard no matter who they were playing against, but this year has been a learning experience with a new bunch of faces. Yates’ game revolves around applying pressure on the opponents, both offensively and defensively, but this year's version of the Lions has not been doing that well this season, as compared to the teams of the last three seasons.



Gardner, Young, and Peters

Remember that this is not your Jack Yates team of  the past few years of Brandon Peters, Joseph Young, and Darius Gardner. This is a much younger team playing with some immaturity, which is to be expected.


Yates is now 10-1 and plays the Wheatley Wildcats in the Houston ISD Tourney semis on Monday (12/20) afternoon at Delmar at noon. Wheatley was a winner over both Westbury and North Shore on Saturday.

In the other semifinal game on Monday, Madison plays Westbury Christian at 1:30 pm with the semifinal winners meeting at 7:30 pm at Delmar. The third place consolation game between the semifinal losers is at 6 pm on Monday.


Both the third-place consolation game and tourney final game will be televised on Comcast Channel 129 on Monday evening starting at 6 pm.