Yoemen Sports Network

Brock (13-2) Vs. Rockdale (12-3) - Thursday - AT&T Stadium - 3:00

If you’re a fan of holiday hoops, you’re in luck. Cameron’s annual Chamber of Commerce Christmas Classic basketball tournament will be taking place next Thursday, December 28 and Friday, December 29.

This is one of the premier tournaments in Central Texas year in and year out, as a total of 12 boys teams and 12 girls teams from across the state will be traveling to Cameron for basketball action.

Fox Sports to broadcast state football championships

Fox Sports Southwest will once again be broadcasting all of the UIL state championship football games this Wednesday through Saturday.

Information provided by Fox Sports Southwest:

“A pair of Six-Man contests will launch live game coverage on Wednesday, Dec. 20, and be available to stream on FOX Sports GO only. All remaining games will be televised on either FOX Sports Southwest or FOX Sports Southwest Plus.

In some markets, the 2A Division I game on Dec. 20 at 7:00 p.m. and 5A Division I game on Dec. 22 at 7:00 p.m. will be carried on FOX Sports Southwest Plus due to overlap with NBA broadcasts on FOX Sports Southwest. Additionally, the 3A Division II tilt on Dec. 21 at 7:00 p.m. will be televised across all markets on FOX Sports Southwest Plus.

Sub-Varsity basketball finds success in tourneys

A large majority of Cameron’s sub-varsity basketball teams were in action over the weekend in tournaments across Central Texas.

The 7th and 8th grade boys’ teams competed in the Cameron tournament on Thursday and Saturday. The 8th grade ended up in third place with a 41-32 win over Hearne. Nolan Brashear had 21 points in the game while Adam Cardona was also in double figures with 11. The 7th grade went undefeated both days and ended as tournament champions with a 36-32 win over Gatesville. Pharrell Hemphill was in double figures at 11 while Landon Green had 8 points. The 7th grade also defeated Rogers on Monday while the 8th grade fell to the Eagles.

Cameron knew it was going to be somewhat of an uphill battle in the 20-3A opener on Tuesday with number two Little River Academy traveling to town. The Lady Bees beat the Lady Yoe twice last season by an average of 45 points per contest, and the top five players were returning to help garner Academy a top 5 ranking. Cameron did not pull off the upset this go around, but strides were made in what was a much more competitive 55-30 loss.

Cameron (9-8/0-1) opened up to a 9-2 lead to begin the game and held a 14-11 advantage after the first quarter of play.

“I was really proud of how well we started the game,” said Lady Yoe coach Corey Cunningham. “We talked about how we needed to stay in the game as long as possible to build confidence and they did that. I think the key was handling Academy’s press. Last year, they scored in flurries because we could not handle it.”

Rockdale (11-3) Vs. Yoakum (13-1) - Friday - 7:00 - Cypress’ Cy Fair FCU Stadium

The past few weeks I got a chance to sit down and hash out what I believe the UIl is going to do with 3A DI football for the next two seasons. It is very difficult to predict what the UIL will or will not do, and one team moving to another district can dramatically shift things and have a domino effect on everyone else. I have seen a few different mocks alignments, and mine differs as you would expect.

Don’t expect much change for Cameron

When February rolls around, I would not expect many changes for Cameron. It is very possible that all of the same teams that currently reside in the district return for two more seasons. One possible addition is Manor Tech, which is a new school in Manor ISD. They are probably two far north to put them with the likes of Lago Vista, Marion, Luling, and schools further south into San Antonio.

A second option

On Wednesday morning, the UIL announced the long-awaited cutoff numbers that places schools in classifications for the 2018-2019 school years.  

Cameron will be staying put in class 3A. 

The new 6A conference will be for schools at 2190 students and above. Class 5A Division 1 will include 1840 to 2189, while Division 2 will comprise 1150 to 1830. Class 4A Division 1 will be 790 to 1149, with Division 2 from 505 to 789. Class 3A Division 1 will include 335 to 504, with Division 2 to run from 225 to 334. Class 2A Division 1 will be 161.5 to 224, with Division 2 from 105 to 161.4. Class 1A Division 1 will be 55.5 to 104.9, with Division 2 to encompass all schools less than 55 students. 

Cameron turned in a number of 488 back in October for the snapshot day.  Districts will be released at the beginning of February.  

We will have more details about where the Yoemen could potentially land in next week’s edition of sports.  

Teague (11-2) Vs. Rockdale (10-3) - Friday - 7:30 - Waco ISD Stadium

For a majority of Tuesday’s home game with Giddings, Cameron was right in the thick of things. In the first, second and fourth quarters, the Yoemen played an even game with the Buffaloes, but it was the third that proved to be the big difference in this one as Giddings had a 24-9 scoring advantage, and that was essentially the difference in a 71-58 loss.

“They came out to start the half on an 11-0 run and we ended up losing by 13,” said Yoe coach Nick Burns. “It was that 3 minutes into the third quarter that we could not recover from. You take that way, we play them even the rest of the game. We just came out to such a sloppy start that second half. They didn’t change anything. We just turned the ball over and tried to press things too much.”

The size advantage favored the Buffaloes down low, and it showed with a 22-6 advantage in offensive rebounds and a 65-45 shot advantage.