Yoe stays hot with wins over Rogers, Rockdale

Rogers

Yoe head coach Nick Burns wanted one thing from his team Friday at Rogers. He wanted a complete buzzer to buzzer game, and in the process keep the pressure on the entire way.

You could say mission accomplished as Cameron began the game on a 9-0 run and continued to pour it on in the fourth in what was a dominating 63-31 win.

“This is always a scary game in Rogers and Coach Evan is a great coach,” said Burns shortly after the win. “They run a 2-3 zone just like Franklin, and it’s given us problems. I think that Franklin loss lit a fire under us. This week, we didn’t focus on man, just all zone. During morning practice, I pulled out the shooting gun, and we worked on a zone shooting drill. You can tell it payed off tonight.”

Keanu McCarter was a big reason for the fast start as he was the one that scored all of Cameron’s nine opening points.

“Coach told us we needed to come out with a fire,” said McCarter. “We had been practicing real hard and I felt like I needed to step up with this being my senior season. I just took the game to heart and I did what was needed to get the win.”

Cameron led 19-6 after one, 40-17 at the half and 55-23 after three, but Burns was adamant about keeping the foot on the gas, much like his team may have do in playoffs games later this month.

“In a game like this, it’s a good time to work on things you’re not good at,” Burns said. “I want them to keep their foot on the pedal. When they play like this, we have a chance to do something. We have to get out of that losing culture mentality, get ahead and keep that lead and win big.”

Stat Leaders:

Points: McCarter (12), Dondrick Moore (11), Dre Booze (9), Nico Vargas (8), Levi May (8), Thomas Melton (6).

Rebounds: May (5), Royce Reynolds (3), McCarter (3), Melton (3)

Steals: Moore (4), Melton (4), May (3), McCarter (2)

Rockdale

It’s not easy beating one team twice in a season, much less your rival in Rockdale. The Yoemen managed to mark that off the checklist by storming by the Tigers on Tuesday night from Yoe Gym, 66-54.

It was senior night, and Burns was pleased with the performance from the players that lead the

program.

“It was a big night for our seniors,” said Burns. “They played big and stepped it up. I told them that a senior year is full of memories, and we wanted one of those memories to be going 2-0 against Rockdale.”

However, on this night it was the underclassmen that really stole the show offensively, as sophomore’s Calvin Stewart (19 points), Nico Vargas (10 points), Kobe Young (9 points) and junior Dre Booze (11 points) combined for 49 points, or nearly 75 percent of Cameron’s production on the evening.

“It seems to be a recurring theme,” said Burns on the young talent. “We talked all year about how these sophomores are stepping up and attributing to our success. You can lean on these seniors but there is not enough of them to make a team. When we can play three of four sophomores at a time on the floor and extend leads, that’s pretty good.”

The lead was stretched to 43-30 in the third when Kobe Young hit back-to-back floaters in the lane. Rockdale did managed to make mini runs to cut the lead down to as little as 7, but Cameron always had a push to keep the Tigers away from striking distance.

Stat Leaders

Points: Stewart (19), Booze (11), Vargas (10), Young (9), Levi May (7)

Rebounds: Vargas (7), Stewart (4), Booze (4), Dondrick Moore (4), May (3), Jay Shields (3)

Friday’s 20-3A Results

Cameron Yoe 63, Rogers 31; Franklin 61, Academy 46; Jarrell 80, Hearne 51; Rockdale 60, Lexington 48.

Tuesday’s 20-3A Results

Cameron Yoe 66, Rockdale 54; Jarrell 63, Franklin 55; Academy 73, Lexington 49; Hearne 63, Rogers 47.

20-3A Standings (2 games remaining)

1. Jarrell (12-0), 2. Cameron Yoe (9-3), 3. Franklin (8-4), 4. Hearne (7-5), 5. Academy (5-7), 6. Rockdale (4-8), 7. Rogers (3-9), 8. Lexington (0-12).

Cameron will host Academy on Friday before hitting the road to close out the regular season at Jarrell on Tuesday.