Barnett, Harrison twins box out the bigger Lions and connect on open shots
In the winding moments of the game, Darrion Martin converted back-to-back bank shots to pull Yates within five points, 66-61. However, it wasn’t enough to battle a veteran crew of experienced guards in twins Aaron and Andrew Harrison and fellow teammate John Barnett who helped send Travis passed the Yates Lions 76-63 on Saturday night at Texas Southern University.
For the second time in as many meetings, Travis defeated Yates. Last season the two powers opened the season in front of a capacity crowd at the Merrell Center where Travis walked away with a thrilling 77-69 victory.
The Harrison twins are regarded as two of the nation’s top guards according to several polls. Aaron led Travis with 23 points, Andrew scored 18 and Barnett dropped in 14. As usual, the Kentucky commits, Aaron and Andrew bombed away from the perimeter as well as worked their way through the lane for contested baskets. Sharp shooting Barnett gives a team the option to pick its poison. Barnett can spot up with the best of long range bombers most effective when the twins draw double coverage.
“In the off season, before and after school, I put in a lot of practice. They (the twins) draw the double team and they kick it out to me and I hit the trey,” Fort Bend Travis shooting guard John Barnett said. On defense we boxed them out even though we don’t have the big bodies as we did last season.”
“We pride ourselves on defense and it obviously it helps that we have the two best guards in the country. It’s an advantage going against a pressing team, it plays into our strengths. We love when people press us, because it opens up so many opportunities for those guys (Aaron and Andrew Harrison). Yates played a great game; they’re going to win lots of games this year. But defensive we stuck to the game plan, kind kept it to our pace. They had a couple of runs and couple of dunks but we tried to limit that. Just make smart plays, play together and make the extra pass to win as a team.”
The Wildcats are not as big as last season when it took Flower Mound Marcus to the wire before bowing in the state title game. Gone are 6’8” center, Christian Crockett and 6’7” wingman Kyle Coulter, but team expectations are no different this year. Anything less than a state title would be a disappointment for the Tigers.
Yates drew within four points at the opening of the third quarter after Kenya Jackson layup, trimming the score, 43-39. But Travis had an answer for every question the Lions rendered, including Barnett’s trey to increase the lead, 46-39 with 7:46 left in the quarter.
Coach Wise pointed out the fact, how important for his young Lions to play a demanding schedule which feature one senior player on the team (Darrian Martin). He would have it no other way as the team works toward building an empire for later years to come.
“We have a young team with only one senior on the team. We are looking at not only what we’re trying to do this year but we’re trying get them experience for what we’re trying to do next year also. With that in mind, if you want to be the best, you have to play the best. We know with this year’s schedule, it’s the toughest we’ve ever had but that’s what we wanted,” says Yates coach Greg Wise.
Free throw shooting, sloppy passes, turnovers and cold shooting allowed Travis second chance points which was part of the troubles the Lions faced. Not to mention poor free throw shooting and not getting back on defense. The Lions were 3-of-23 from the behind arc in the first half while the Tigers connected on 8-of-14.
“I thought it went ok other than the score at the end. We missed quite a few free throws and open shots that we normally make. At the end we had a couple good looks that would have put us right there. Other than the free throws and our cold shooting, the game went like I thought,” Wise said. We talked all week about Travis being good free throw shooters. We didn’t want to put them on the line. A tough schedules us in many ways.”
After trailing 5-1 to start the game, Travis took advantage of the Lions cold shooting to take a 15-7 lead, which included a pair of treys from John Burnett and Aaron Harrison.
“I didn’t make all the plays like I wanted but John Barnett and Aaron stepped up. Playing a tough game early like this gives our younger players confidence. They were nerves at first but we told them get comfortable we have your back,” said Tigers guard Andrew Harrison.
An ice cold shooting first quarter left Yates trailing 22-12 entering the second. Twice the Lions’ came within one before tying the game at 34. Swift’s trey from the right baseline closed the gap, 31-30 and Martin sank two free throws with 2:37 left in the second to pull Yates within one, 33-32.
Center Sadiq Inuwa’s steal and dunk tied the game at 34 with 1:54 left in the second quarter. But again Travis would out score the Lions, 9-3 the remainder of the quarter, to grab a 43-37 halftime lead.
JC Washington’s rebound cleanup pulled Yates within five, 62-57 with 5:31 left, but turnovers eventually caught up to them as the Tigers’ countered when Andrew Harrison sank two free throws.
From there, both teams traded baskets until Barnett nail a 3-pointer and Aaron and Andrew converted an Alley Hoop, putting the final touches on the game to finish out a 76-63 victory.