Their overall record isn’t very good at this point, but head coach Joe Reed isn’t giving up on the Yorktown Patriots.
Yorktown fell to 1-7 with another close loss Dec. 14, falling to the host Madison Warhawks, 67-62, after leading by five with 3:09 left to play in the boys high-school basketball game. Madison (6-1) went on a 10-0 run to end the game.
“We make one more shot or get a key box out, I think we win,” Reed said. “We have confidence, we just aren’t finishing games right now, and we’ve played a tough schedule.”
Yorktown’s seven losses have been by an average of 6.4 points, including two, three and five-point setbacks.
“We’re in every game,” Reed said.
Yorktown will have played a busy schedule (nine games in 17 days) by week’s end, but that was on purpose.
“It’s a lot of games; we haven’t even had time to practice between games sometimes,” Reed said. “But I wanted to find out our weak spots real early before we got into league play.”
In the loss to Madison, Yorktown shot OK from the floor for three quarters, but was just 3 of 14 in the final period, when the Patriots lost a five-point lead with 3:09 to play.
Yorktown relies heavily on making three-point baskets and had 11 against Madison, but was only 2 of 10 from that spot in the final quarter.
The contest was seesaw throughout, with nine ties and 10 lead changes. Madison led 19-15 at the end of the first quarter, 37-36 at halftime and 55-52 after three periods. Yorktown built the five-point fourth-quarter lead at 62-57 thanks to a 15-2 run.
Yorktown had four players score in double figures, with T.J. Hutchison leading the way with 12 points on four three-pointers. He added three rebounds.
Chris Short (three assists, two steals) and Beck Ortiz-Rohaly (five rebounds, three threes) each scored 11. Liam Vitters (four rebounds) had 10. Quinn Cooper had seven points, five rebounds and two blocks off the bench; Kieran Upadhyaya had four points and three rebounds; and Mason Cunningham had three points, three assists and three rebounds.