Lions’ team effort answered when its press wasn’t at its best
Aldine – Low post CJ Washington poured in 28 points and Yates pressure defense wore down the Westbury Christian Wildcats as the Lions’ cruise to its first win of the season by a score of 99-83.
With the victory, the Lions (1-0) set the stage for a 4:00 pm Saturday date with Fort Bend Travis at Texas Southern University. Travis features twin guards, Aaron and Andrew Harrison who are among the nation’s best.
Junior forward Washington was all over the court. He led five players in double figures with 28 points, 16 boards and four blocks. Lewis had 19, Anderson 13 and Inowa and Melvin Swift finished with 12 each.
Without the likes of last season’s scoring leaders, Damien Dotson and Clyde Santee, Washington answered the called of coach Wise to lead a young group of Lion Cubs. With the Lions’ tradition hanging in the balance, he needed to step his game up.
“I knew coming into this season, I had to be competitive to be the best I could and to be a leader. In order to follow in the footsteps of the guys before me, I had to step up to fill some big shoes. So I really had to work on my game over the summer. The coaches talked to me. They told me to do it for my teammates, have energy, that’s what I had to do and I did it,” says Washington.
Everything starts on defense for the Lions. From the opening tip, the feisty Lions pressured the ball. Yates led 9-2, after seven straight points from center Sadiq Inowa, CJ Washington’s trey and Joseph Anderson’s free throws.
Not long after, the Wildcats trimmed the lead to two, 13-11 when junior guard Jordan Gillion drained two free throws and would eventually tie the game at 17, with 1:24 left in the first quarter.
But within a blink of an eye, Yates’ Washington and junior guard Damion Lewis forced a couple of turnovers, curtsey of its patient defense to close out the quarter, up 27-19.
“We came out and played hard. But for a first game, there are a lot of things we need to do better but we expected that for the first game. They played hard. In the first half we let some of their guy’s shoot that we didn’t want to shoot. But we clamped that down in the second half. As a coach, you will see a lot of things you can do better. I’m glad with the effort. In the second half we were thinking and doing a little better on what we were trying to do on our different presses. The first half we didn’t run them all like we should have but in the second half they did a lot better job of it.” Coach Wise said.
Washington’s midrange jumper combined with Swift’s back-to-back dunks brought Yates fans to its feet and started a 6-0 run to begin the second quarter as the Lions increased its lead, 33-19.
But the scrappy Wildcats kept things interesting, answering the Lions’ run. Charles Simmons connect on three, first half treys, totaling 19 points to leading a cast of Wildcats in scoring, including Zach Hamilton, 14, Kyle Guidry, 13, Arta Turner, 11 and Kirk Berger finished with 10.
Westbury continued to chip away at the lead, closing within six points twice, 39-33 and 45-39 with 1:04 left in the second quarter, before trailing 50-43 at the half.
Yates was always one shot away from blowing the game open. However, that wouldn’t happen until late.
The Wildcats closed within seven points in the third quarter but was hampered by turnovers. Three traveling calls in the quarter were huge which allowed the Lions to build a 75-60 lead to end the quarter.
In the fourth and final quarter, Yates led by as many 20 points before cruising to a 16 point win.
