View more photos from Tuesday’s game here.
YATES CENTER — The Yates Center High School Wildcats opened their season with a misstep after falling to the Southeast Lancers 62-33 Tuesday night.
The Wildcats could not contend with the Lancers’ combination of guards Tyler Warner and Blake Robinson, who combined for 18 points in the opening minutes — doubling Yates Center’s offensive production after the first quarter.
“The first half, I liked it despite being down 13 points,” Yates Center coach Lane Huffman said. “I liked the effort, I just didn’t like the execution. We gave them a lot of second-chance points. It was little breakdowns and things we talked about at practice.”
Yates Center saw an uptick in scoring in the third quarter, with sophomore forward Jacob Smoot hitting five of his team-leading 9 points. The Lancers already had a 14-point advantage by then and began pulling starters by the fourth quarter.
“In the second half, some guys were taking some plays off and that’s not a good recipe for a top three team in the league,” Huffman said.
With the loss, the Wildcats fall to 3-4 overall and 0-2 in the Three Rivers League.
Sophomore guard Gavin Busteed, sophomore forward Jeremiah Jones and sophomore guard Evan McVey tied for second in scoring with 5 points each, followed by sophomore guard Marcus Cummings with 4 points.
Yates Center hopes to pick up its first TRL win Thursday, when they head to newly minted TRL team Erie for a 7 p.m. tilt against the Red Devils.
“I like the way the league is set up this year. You get to play everybody and you have to go through the gauntlet,” Huffman said. “Erie has been playing well. They’re a team we match up well with, but if we take plays off it will be a 5 or 6 point loss if we don’t take care of business.”
