YATES CENTER — Things weren’t looking good early for Yates Center High’s boys Tuesday.
The Wildcats trailed Bluestem 10-1 in the early going of the opening round of the Wildcat Winter Classic.
But rather than call timeout — a move many coaches would do to stem a cold spell — Yates Center head coach Lane Huffman exercised patience.
“Rather than burn timeouts early, I challenged the boys to figure it out on their own a little bit,” Huffman said.
Figure it out they did.
Despite some cool shooting from the outside, Yates Center instead was more aggressive at attacking the rim.
By halftime, Yates Center had pulled even, and by the end of the third quarter, the Wildcats held a 41-37 lead of what became a 55-41 romp.
Huffman pointed to key contributions from Evan McVey, who scored all 12 of his points after halftime, and the play of reserves Marcus Cummings and Colton Burkholder, who scored eight and six points, respectively.
They were key after Yates Center’s leading scorer, Ben Cook, exited after having scored 17.
“They gave us energy at both ends of the court,” Huffman said. “We didn’t expect Evan to be a scorer, but he has done a fine job getting points on the board.”
Jacob Smoot chipped in with eight points and Jeremiah Jones followed with four.
YATES CENTER’S girls, like the boys, picked up their first win of the season with a 38-27 win over Bluestem Tuesday. No other details were available.
The wins put both teams in the winners bracket of the Winter Classic.
The Wildcats girls will take on Eureka at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Norris Gymnasium. The boys will follow against Sedan, at about 8 o’clock. The tournament concludes Friday.
