- Findlay Prep’s Guard Nick Johnson led the Pilots in victory, snaping Yates 66 game streak
Lions unravel in
the second quarter
In a game that most Houstonians would have preferred to see last season materialized this season.
Yates impressive run of 66 straight was put to an end by the Findlay College Prep Pilots 95-69 Thursday night at Texas Southern University’s Health and Physical Education Arena.
The Pilots (15-1) watched Yates take a 27-22 lead after one quarter, but not long after Myck Kabongo and Kaspar were able to break Yates patent press with ease resulting in layups and dunks. It was Findlay’s stifling half court defense that forced the Lions into bad shot selections and turnovers, something that the Lions are not accustom to.
Things begin to snowball for the Lions in the second quarter. Amir Garrett’s two layups pulled Findlay even with Yates at 29. From there the Pilots increase thier lead to nine when Nigel Williams scored five consecutive points to give Findlay a 42-33 lead with just under five minutes to go in the quarter. Sloppy play, quick shots and not getting back on defense took its toll on the Lions.
”It was just two great teams battling it out on a big stage and both teams played really hard. I thought we handled their pressure pretty well and didn’t make too many mistakes and I think that’s one of the biggest things we didn’t give them a lot of opportunities to capitalize on our mistakes,” said Nigel Williams-Goss Findlay Prep’s guard.
Findlay continued feeding off layup as they picked up transition baskets to take a 56-42 lead into halftime.
Early foul trouble didn’t help Yates; Santee who knocked down his first two three pointers as the game begin had three fouls before the first quarter ended and sat out most of the second quarter.
After the first quarter jitters the Pilots settled down and took control of the tempo and never trailed from the second quarter on.
Dotson and Darrion Martin fought for baskets but could never stop the bleeding for the Pilots were in full control of the game.
“We started out playing hard and towards the end the middle of the game they started playing a tougher than us getting more rebounds and easy buckets. After that we couldn’t get back in the game,” said Trey Dickerson Yates guard.
Nick Johnson who was superb on the night had back to back 3-point plays, one the old fashion way to stretch the lead to 74-56 late in the 3rd quarter. But the Lions would draw a little closer, ending the third quarter with a trey from Shai Fields, cutting the lead to 13, 76-63.
It wasn’t before Kaspar and Amir erased any thoughts of a comeback with a long 3 from the right baseline and Garrett added a layup to push the score back to an 18 point lead, 81-63.
“We was focused a lot, we been working out for this game. We knew what they were going to do, so we worked on it so we came up good,” said Kevin Kaspar Findlay’s Guard.
Arizona’s signee Nick Johnson led four starters in double figures with 24 points on 8 of 8 from the floor and 10 of 11 from the free throw line. Garrett totaled 20 points, Point Guard Myck Kabongo had 18 points and 11 assist and Nigel Williams-Goss finished with 13.
