Jack Yates wins State

Congrats to the Jack Yates Lions, from a Booker T. Washington alum. Y'all did HISD and 3rd Ward proud!!!

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/hso/6311436.html

Yates roars to 4A state title with record performance

AUSTIN - With 21 seconds left on the clock and a state championship well in hand, Yates guards Darius Gardner and Marshall Lange shared a brief hug near the middle of the Frank Erwin Center floor and held up their hands high, with a thumb and two forefingers extended, signaling their neighborhood pride.

When the clock hit triple zeroes, it became official: the Jack Yates Lions are bringing a state title back home to Third Ward, the community in which Yates High School is nestled.

In what has become typical Yates fashion this season, the Lions completed their year-long journey by wearing down Dallas Kimball 94-78 in the Class 4A state championship game on Saturday in front of 15,521.

"Yates has great pride," Gardner said. "There have been great teams that have come before us that were good but never got over the hump. This team had the mindset to get over the hump and win state - and we did that."

The Lions claim their first University Interscholastic League championship in school history. It's their sixth state title overall and first since 1949 - when they were in the Prairie View Interscholastic League.

Their 94-point output was also a UIL Class 4A state championship game record for a single team, beating Beaumont Hebert's 88-point championship game output in 1980. The team's also combined for the highest aggregate score in a 4A title game and Kimball's 78 points was the most for a losing team in the 4A title game.

Coach Greg Wise said earlier this week that if the Lions (34-1) played the way they were capable of, nobody would stop them. That proved to be the case on Saturday.

Dallas Kimball (31-10) led after scoring the first basket of the game with 7:44 to go in the first quarter. When Joseph Young responded 16 seconds later with his first of seven 3-pointers on the day, the Lions would never give the lead back to the Knights.

That 3-pointer kicked off a 12-0 run to give Yates a double-digit lead less than two minutes into the game. And though Kimball would fight back and make the game close time and again, Yates would come up with a big play - offensively or defensively - to extend the lead.

"We knew that they would play hard all night," Kimball coach Royce Johnson said. "They made some shots, made some plays when needed to be made. They did what we had been doing to other teams, like getting every loose ball."

Kimball kept its deficit in single digits in the second quarter and for most of the third. Late in the third, the Lions' relentless full-court pressure, which netted 27 turnovers, began to take its cumulative effect and Yates began to pull away.

After Kimball pulled to within five points on a 3-pointer by Davion Green, Gardner responded with a three then Young added back-to-back treys for a 67-53 lead with 1:28 left in the third. The Knights were never closer than nine points after that.

"During a timeout in the third quarter, we got to the huddle and coach Wise told us to keep the pace up because they were getting tired," Gardner said. "We came out, got focused on defense, got some steals and it led to some offense."

Young, the championship game's most valuable player, finished with 29 points. Gardner had the Lions' best all-around game with 20 points, nine assists and six steals. Junior guard Brandon Peters excited the crowd with a host of highlight-reel worthy dunks as part of his 18 point, eight-rebound day.

After the buzzer sounded and the Lions were being draped with their gold medals, they couldn't hold back the tears. The emotions ran through all of them as they completed a journey they have long awaited the chance for - a journey that started when they missed out on an opportunity to play for a state championship last year in their 2008 regional title game loss to Wheatley.

"To make this trip to Austin and dominate and win every game by double digits, it feels real good," senior center Brandon Lee said. "After the game everybody got emotional, (because) it felt good."