HOUSTON – The Jack Yates Lions have been lighting up scoreboards for years, but this season is special. Yates broke its own national record for consecutive games with 100+ points on offense, getting #16 in a blowout over Scarborough on Wednesday.
Here’s how they did it:
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PRESS AND TRAP
The Yates Lions don’t let teams get into their offense, They run a full-court press and trap meant to disrupt teams before they can get set up. It works really well, and they continue to do it even with enormous leads.
“Teams get tired and we keep it going and going,” said JaBraylon Vaughn, a junior guard. “Even if we’re up by 100, we still press and trap.”
They regularly win games by more than 50 points, even outscoring one opponent by 83.
100+ IN 32 MINUTES
Scoring 100+ in the NBA is easy. Scoring 100+ in college is difficult but doable with the right team. Scoring 100+ in high school is much, much harder. While there is far less parity the lower you go, high school is a matter of time. There are 32 minutes in a high school basketball game as opposed to 40 in college and 48 in the NBA.
The Lions have to average roughly three points per minute to hit 100. Teams sometimes tend to slow-play the Lions so they don’t get 100 points, but in the team’s 19 wins this season, they’ve scored 100 or more in all of them.
TEXAS TOUGH
Yates is blowing through its district with a 12-0 record in 4A Region III District 23. Two other teams, North Forest and Furr, have winning records in the district. Yates has beaten them by 69 (Furr) and 42 (North Forest). They have one game left against North Forest and one against Worthing. Yates beat Worthing 105-37 earlier this season. In fact, they are 19-0 against teams from Texas, including impressive wins over 6A schools like Morton Ranch and Dekaney.
The team’s only three losses have come against out of state powers. Cardinal Ritter (MO), Monteverde (FL) and Sunrise Christian Academy (KS) are the only teams to beat Yates. Sunrise is ranked in the top 50 nationally, while Monteverde Academy is the No. 1 rated high school team in America.
