Austin – It wasn’t the lopsided victory that the Lions have enjoyed in pasted games, but it was enough to advance to the finals. Even with 31 forced turnovers, the Falcons never surrendered.
Early in the third quarter, it all came together, when Darrion Martin dropped a short jumper in the lane, increasing Yates largest lead, 47-40 and helping defeat Brookshire Royal 81-70 on Thursday evening at the Frank Erwin Center.
The No 1 ranked Lions (31-4) are in their second straight title game and will meet the No 2 ranked team in Dallas Madison on Saturday at 10 A.M. in the Erwin Center.
31-turnovers wasn’t enough to bring down the Falcons. It was the Lions spirited third quarter play. JC Washington, Martin, Joseph Anderson and Melvin Swift put together an 11-0 run that lasted 2:43, while building a 54-40 lead with 4:27 left in the quarter.
The same runs the Lions have benefitted from its pressing, trapping style defense in previous contest.
When the game was on the line, Martin worked from the wing position to create offense off the dribble which resulted in foul shots are baskets. But help came from teammates, including Anderson who led four Lions in scoring with 18. Martin and freshman Lorenzo Phillips chipped in 17 and JC Washington had 16 and 15 rebounds.
De’Shaven led the Falcons with 14 and Kenton Sams tossed in 13.
One reporter asked Yates Coach Wise about the seriousness of the rivalry pride between Dallas and Houston since the matchup has unfolded and After Madison said they wanted No 1 vs No 2 in the title game. Heres what Wise added.
“That’s probably the way they look at it. It don’t matter what team it is we face, we’re trying to do one game better than last year. It don’t matter who it is, we need to keep our focus and play the way we need to play. Whosever there, and that happens to be Dallas Madison. They’ll be ready to play and I’m sure we’ll be ready to play also.”
Wise also mentioned.
“Dallas Madison is a very good team. They’re athletic”. They have the depth to stay in the game. We have to be focused and ready to play and not depend on them wearing down. I feel like if we’re able to do what we’re able to, we’ll be ok.
Yates defense left many holes early as the Falcons passed the ball over the press which led to several layups.
“We’ve done a good job of staying focus up until today. Our press played about as bad as it did all season. We got some steals because they were tired. Hopefully we’ll get that corrected before tomorrow and be ready to play.
Royal who had no plans of showing up as a door matt, answered Yates 5-0 opening run, with a 9-0 run that included Flowers layup, Kyle Abanathy’s two fast break baskets and Wesley Wilson closed it with two free throws to lead early, 9-5 and 17-16 after the first quarter.
“The first half pretty much went like I expected even though we knew we would have to handle the pressure”, Brookshire Royal coach Reggie Gibbs. Thats the way we played all year up and down. We never backed down, we’re normally the guys who like to put the pressure on them but we knew if we broke their first line of defense that we had opportunities to get some layups and that’s what kept us close.”
The Falcons (29-9) trailed 41-38 at halftime and seemed poised entering the second half. But trading points with the Lions was pointless. For every one or two baskets the Falcons scored, Yates countered.
Midways through the fourth quarter, Flowers scored back-back baskets, trimming the Yates lead, 72-65. But battling fatigue, mere numbers and pressure, the Falcons could only watch and wait.
“In the second half they did exactly what we expected them to do”, says Gibbs. We didn’t think they were putting that much pressure on us because we were hurting them earlier. breaking the press and really that’s where we wanted them. It really gave us an opportunity to set up our offense and run it a little bit. You have to chalk this one up to experience. They’ve been here before, for the last five years. Inexperience showed, we kind of got out of what we wanted to do. We missed some shots.”