LAS VEGAS – The Yavapai College men's basketball team started fast and finished strong on Friday night at the Coyote Classic, defeating the host school College of Southern Nevada 94-83 to improve to 5-2 overall on the season. 

"I'm really happy with our team's focus in the first half," Head Coach Kevon Davis said after the game. "We built a lead and that set the tone for the rest of the game."

The aforementioned first-half lead was a big one as the Roughriders raced out to a 10-1 lead just three minutes into the contest. With just under 12 minutes left to play in the first half, freshman guard Nadir Myers buried his second of three three-pointers of the half to give the Roughriders a commanding 21-8 lead. 

On the next possession, freshman guard Kam O'Bannon tallied one of the "wow" plays of the night, driving to the rim and slamming home a vicious dunk to extend the YC lead. 

Leading by as many as 19 with just under five to play, the Roughriders settled for a 16 point-lead at the break and went into halftime up 43-27. 

Five minutes into the second half, the Roughriders looked poised to run away with an easy Friday-night victory as freshman guard Isaac Gonzalez drove to the rack, blazed past a trio of Coyote defenders and layed it in to give YC its third 19-point lead of the night at 60-41. 

While the scoreboard showed things getting out of hand, no one told the Coyotes that the game was getting late early and CSN rallied to make a game of it. 

With 15 left to play, CSN went on a 10-0 run down to the 11-minute mark and trailed by just 11 points. After the next YC basket, CSN went on another 8-0 run to cut the deficit to just 62-59 with nine minutes left to play. 

Needing to stop the Coyote momentum, the Roughriders got what they were looking for on their next possession when sophomore guard Carter John buried his second three-pointer of the evening to double YC's lead and stop the bleeding. 

The next couple of times down the court, sophomore guards Tym Richardson and Ray Glasgow each knocked down clutch jumpers to extend the lead to 69-61 with eight minutes left to play. 

Now under the seven minute mark, both teams found themselves in the double bonus and Friday night's contest started to become a free-throw battle and although the Roughriders didn't live up to their 80% mark from before the game, they shot 25-36 (69.4%) on the night with many coming in the closing moments. 

CSN, on the other hand, was unable to keep pace with YC from the charity stripe as they made just 24 of 41 attempts for a percentage of 58.5. 

With two to play, Gonzalez put the dagger in Friday night's contest with another nice drive to the rack to restore YC's double-digit lead and pave the way to victory. 

After Gonzelez's bucket, it was all free throws and YC coasted to a 94-83 win on a night in which the Roughriders never trailed. 

Glasgow led all YC scorers with 26 while sophomore guard Kieran Carr had 15 (11 free throws) and Gonzalez had 12. Carr also grabbed 10 rebounds to record his third double-double of the season. 

Up Next
The Roughriders finish up their quick trip to Las Vegas tomorrow (November 18) with a 2 p.m. (MST) game against Western Wyoming.