Defense saves day for Sun Kings
By DAVE THOMAS
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC
Link: http://www.yakimaherald.com/page/sp/302943965442338
This was a decidedly one-sided victory for the Yakama Sun Kings on Tuesday night.
Not between the Sun Kings and their opponent, the Oklahoma Cavalry.
Quite the contrary. For the second straight game, the Cavalry proved a worthy foe, keeping the game close most of the way.
No, the imbalance came from within.
While Yakama has been an impressive force at both ends of the floor in its perfect start, that was not the case Tuesday.
Instead, it was the defense that bailed out an inconsistent offense as the Sun Kings pulled out a 94-83 victory to move to 11-0, matching the 1992-93 Rapid City Thrillers for the fourth-best start since 1990.
"You can attribute this win to the defense," Yakama coach Paul Woolpert said. "Defensively, we were back to the Sun Kings of earlier this season."
Led by a rejuvenated Elvin Mims, the Sun Kings held Oklahoma 23 points under its season average, and under 40 percent shooting for the game.
"We got a glimpse of the real Elvin Mims tonight," Woolpert said of the guard, who finished with 12 points, 11 rebounds, four assists and two blocked shots in his best effort of the young season.
The effort by Mims, who has been slowed by a sore knee, produced a solid defensive effort.
"We came out a little better (defensively)," said forward Jason Sasser, who also led the offense with 26 points. "We knew what to expect (after Saturday's victory) and we just had to match their intensity."
Oklahoma coach Micheal Ray Richardson disagreed, saying that his team was stymied by its own offensive failures.
"It wasn't what they did, it's what we didn't do," Richardson said. "We didn't play well.
"We'll see them in a couple of weeks at our place and it'll be a different story — I guarantee you that."
Still, Yakama stepped up with a particularly strong defensive stand in the final 12 minutes, with Mims in the middle of most of that work.
Yakama limited Oklahoma to 18 points on 7 of 19 shooting in the fourth after the Cavalry used a late third-quarter run to cut an 18-point deficit to 75-65 entering the fourth.
Yakama again stretched the lead to 18 midway through the fourth, but couldn't maintain that momentum, eventually going scoreless over the final 3:02.
"I still feel like being consistent overall (is our biggest challenge)," Mims said. "We've got vets who know how to stay composed when other teams make runs ... but we've got to work on our consistency and finishing teams off."
"We know how to finish, we just didn't do that tonight," Sasser said. "We got a little lackadaisical. But we still came out with a 6-1 (points) victory."
NOTES: Woolpert moved into ninth place on the CBA's all-time victory list after Saturday's game, passing Cazzie Russell. After Tuesday's win, Woolpert now has 216 victories. ... Yakama played a second straight game without guard Moochie Norris. Woolpert said he hopes to have the veteran point back in time for home games against Minot on Dec. 18 and 21. ... Sasser was named the National Conference player of the week for last week.