YATES CENTER — The Yates Center High boys lacked an offensive identity in their loss to Pleasanton on Friday night.
The Wildcats (1-6) scored 10 points in the first quarter but couldn’t scratch across any more than four points in any of the other three quarters. Pleasanton, meanwhile, didn’t struggle to score baskets as they scored 19 points in both the first and third quarters in a 56-22 win.
Emmit George led the early Yates Center scoring when he banked in a few two-point baskets while Cash Cummings also went for a layup. The Wildcat defense was not enough, though, as Pleasanton came down and scored 19 points in the first, led by Daniel Gillespie’s seven.
“I was content with our offense in the first quarter. We missed some shots but we were doing the right things,” said Yates Center head coach Lane Huffman. “As the game went on, we got outside of ourselves and took shots early in the possession, which didn’t create good offense.”
The Blu-Jays kept pounding it on in the second quarter when Tony Gillespie and D. Gillespie each scored four points to lead a 12-point quarter. Yates Center’s only four points in the second came off the fingers of Cummings pair of layups.
Yates Center trailed Pleasanton at halftime, 31-14.
Devin Sarchet and Cummings scored a pair of layups for the Wildcats in the third, while the Blu-Jays added on 19 points of their own.
“We had another tough loss, due to lack of offensive firepower,” Huffman said. “We were struggling to get the ball to the spots we needed to score, and throughout the game we missed some easy shots when we put ourselves in position.”
D. Gillespie hit a 3-pointer and Kam Staton buried a layup in the final quarter to lead their Pleasanton squad to a 34-point victory. George banked in a couple of two-point baskets for the only Yates Center fourth quarter points.
George led the Wildcats with 10 points, followed by Cummings’s eight points and Sarchet and Brittain’s two points apiece.
Yates Center’s boys take on Cherryvale at the Iola tournament on Tuesday at 5 p.m.
