Don’t read too much into Yokota’s one-sided boys basketball victory over Matthew C. Perry in their first matchup as Division II teams, Panthers coach Paul Ettl said.
Jadan Anderson paced three Panthers in double figures with 26 points and Yokota raced out to a 24-12 first-quarter lead and outscored the Samurai by 16 in the second half en route to a 72-44 home win on Yokota’s Senior Night.
Yokota improved to 13-0 on the season, while Perry lost for the second time in three games after a 13-0 start. But despite the lopsided victory, Ettl said he saw a lot of good in the Samurai and any future matchups might end up closer.
“They’re a solid team,” Ettl said of Perry. “They have two or three excellent scorers and a couple of players who work their tails off on the boards and do dirty work. They seem to know what they’re doing and they’re well coached.”
Hunter Cort added 17 points and Jamarvin Harvey 13 for the Panthers. Jarell Davis paced the Samurai with 14 points and Jon Cadavos tossed in 11, while freshman Garrett Macias grabbed a team-high nine rebounds.
Macias and David Lawrence, who had five rebounds, “gave Perry energy and hustle in the low post,” Samurai assistant coach Ronnie Pride said. Otherwise, “Perry played out of synch the entire night, resulting in a decisive victory for Yokota.”
The two teams could meet again in next weekend’s DODDS Japan tournament, also at Yokota, and again at the Far East Division II Tournament next month at Perry’s home Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni.
“It’s just the first round,” Ettl said. “We’ll see them again, for sure.”
The girls matchup proved equally one-sided as Caitlyn Rowan, Jasmine Strong and Sarah Claypool combined for 30 points and 28 rebounds against an outmanned Samurai team in a 50-15 win.
Perry, saddled with injuries, dressed just five players and finished with four when one rolled an ankle.
In another pair of interdivision DODDS Japan matchup, Nile C. Kinnick’s boys and girls teams each came away victorious against Robert D. Edgren’s teams, the boys getting their first DODDS Japan win 89-70 and the girls prevailing 48-45.
Tarick Deadmon paced three Red Devils boys in double figures with 19 points. For the girls, Lexia Hall had 14 points and 13 boards and Rhyssa Hizon 11 points, eight boards, six assists and six steals.
“They were both beasts out there,” Kinnick girls coach Michael Adair said.
In Korea, Osan’s boys and girls also prevailed in Senior Night matchups. Michele Thompson had 15 points as the Cougars girls beat the Warriors 39-27. Nick White led four Cougars boys in double figures with 17 as Osan outscored Daegu 23-3 in the first quarter and coasted 62-35.
Osan (9-2) can seal the No. 2 seed in the Korean-American Interscholastic Activities Conference Blue Division boys tournament at Seoul American with a win or a loss by 15 or less Wednesday at Seoul Foreign (8-3).
In an Okinawa boys matchup, Kadena won for the third time in five encounters with Kubasaki this season, going up by as many as 27 in the third quarter before holding off a late Dragons rally for a 64-48 win. Jaret Colon had 18 points for the winners.
It was a far cry from the teams’ previous matchup, in Sunday’s final of the Okinawa-American Friendship Tournament. Kadena (19-6) won that one 63-61 on Kortez Hixon’s buzzer-beating shot. Kubasaki is now 18-8.
“They tightened it up at the end,” Kadena coach Gerald Johnson said of a 15-0 run by the Dragons to start the fourth quarter. “It’s always a dogfight. Pride won’t let either team back down.”