MABEN — A 35-point effort by forward Kendrin Yates and a well executed full-court press pushed the West Oktibbeha County High School boys basketball team to a 68-63 victory against Shaw in the first round of the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 1A North State tournament.
“(Kendrin) Yates has been carrying us since January,” West Oktibbeha coach Danny Crawford said. “His intensity is so high you have to get him the ball. I told him big players make plays, and he met my challenge tonight.”
Yates had 20 points in the first half, including a trio of crowd-raising dunks in the opening quarter. He also was consistent at drawing fouls but that didn”t stop him, as he went 16 of 22 from the free-throw line.
“This is one short of my career-high, but I feel like I played a complete game,” Yates said. “I saw a mismatch on the offensive end and I told my teammates I wanted the ball, and they did a good job of getting it to me.”
A back-and-forth first quarter led to West Oktibbeha ending the opening period on a six-point run to take an 18-13 lead. West Oktibbeha maintained that lead for the majority of the second quarter, but Shaw used a six-point run to take the lead in the final minute.
Yates then scored the final five points of the half, including a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to give West Oktibbeha a 36-33 halftime lead.
The third quarter was played to a similar tune with both team”s going back and forth. Another Yates buzzer beater gave West Oktibbeha a 48-46 lead entering the final quarter.
Yates scored West Oktibbeha”s first six points of the fourth quarter, but costly Timberwolves” turnovers allowed Shaw to take a one-point lead with 2 minutes, 10 seconds remaining in the game.
West Oktibbeha responded with intense full-court pressure, which led to a seven-point run and a pair of clutch layups by Dantareaus Cranford (16 points) helped seal the deal for the Timberwolves.
“We did a great job with our press tonight, and give these players credit because they really got after it,” Crawford said.
Crawford and Yates admitted Shaw, which was led in scoring by Andrea Pruitt with 22 points, was a tougher opponent than anticipated, but a well-executed game plan helped West Oktibbeha achieve the victory.
“I did not anticipate tonight”s game to be as close as it was, but give Shaw credit,” Crawford said. “They came in and played physical and no matter what type of lead we got they didn”t back down. But now we”re only two games away from the (Mississippi) Coliseum, and I like our seed and the bracket that is ahead of us.”
West Oktibbeha will face H.W. Byers at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at Okolona in the second round of the North 1A playoffs.
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