Houston Yates takes SPI basketball crown

Well, that’s why the Houston Yates Lions are the top Class 4A team in Texas.

Yates had just enough to hold off a determined The Woodlands Highlanders squad for a 61-58 victory in the final of the SPI Sweet 16 Invitational on Saturday at South Padre Island Convention Centre.

With the game tied at 54 midway through the fourth quarter, Oregon-bound stud Daymean Dotson gave Yates back the lead on a field goal. After a miss, Clyde Santee hit from downtown to open up a 5-point lead.

But The Woodlands wasn’t done, getting two free throws from Joey Trinkle and a layup off a steal from Hayden Galatas to cut the lead down to one.

Yates wasted more time off the clock before Santee hit a pair of free throws (getting a second life after he missed the front-end of a 1-and-1 seconds earlier) to make it a three-point game with under 10 seconds left.

The Woodlands had one final crack at it, but Nolan Cass’ look rattled out as the buzzer sounded.

“Great for us,” Yates coach Greg Wise said. “We feel like we grew a lot. Great, great weekend for us.”

The 6-foot-7 Santee led Yates with 19 points. Dotson and sophomore Melvin Swift, who had a monstrous dunk in the first quarter, both had 11.

Yates had a 34-30 halftime lead and extended that to 12 toward the end of the third. But, behind Cass, the Highlanders fought back and got the lead down to six by the end of the quarter.

In the fourth, a 9-3 The Woodlands run evened the count at 54, but that’s as close as it would get, as Yates found enough to get the win.

“That was one of the things I was most proud of,” Wise said. “Us finishing at the end.”

Yates, and especially Swift, showed off its athleticism early, jumping out to a 16-7 lead midway through the first.

But The Woodlands got back into the game behind five 3-pointers (mostly from Cass) and some stout defense slowing down the Lions’ quick-moving offense. By the end of the first, the Highlanders were down by five. At halftime, it was four.

Cass had 24 (including six 3-pointers) to lead The Woodlands. Garret Colonna added 15.

Earlier in the day, The Woodlands got to the title game with a 45-41 win over Houston St. Thomas while Yates took down Converse Judson 63-59. Just before the title game, St. Thomas beat Judson 66-54 to secure third place.

Elsewhere, Laredo Martin won the consolation championship with a 51-48 victory over Sharyland (which beat Roma 44-28 to get there). Martin also beat Brownsville Hanna 68-44 in its semifinal.

In other action, McAllen High took down Brownsville Porter 74-68 and Harlingen South stopped Brownsville Rivera 53-43. Lastly, in the fifth place game, Houston HYCA beat El Paso Cathedral 61-51.