Panthers improve to 6-4 in EBYL

This past weekend the Howard Pulley Panthers improved to 6-4 in EBYL play winning three of five games in Dallas, Texas. Freshman point guard Tyus Jones made national headlines with an incredible 40-point performance against the Seattle Rotary. The Panthers defeated the traditionally strong Rotary club 87-72.

In that contest Jones made 14 of 19 field goals including 3 of 4 three-point attempts. Tyus also knocked down all nine of his free throw attempts playing the full 32 minutes. For the event Tyus knocked down an eye-opening 63 percent of his 65 field goal attempts, made 5 of 12 treys, and sank 80 percent of his 20 free throw attempts while only sitting out 18 minutes total in five games. Jones averaged 20.6 points, 2.8 assists, 2.6 rebounds, and 2.2 steals in over 28 minutes a contest. He also drew a comparison to Chris Paul by one scout in attendance.

Pulley's three wins came against the Rotary, the Tennessee Travelers, and the King James Shooting Stars (Ohio) while they dropped games to the BABC (out of Boston) and E1T1 (Florida).

While Jones led the team in scoring, fellow point guard Siyani Chambers did his job distributing (he finished with a 2.2 to 1 assist to turnover ratio) plus produced a weekend high 16 points against Seattle Rotary. Siyani made 33 percent of his field goal attempts for the weekend (11 of 33 including 2 of 13 from behind the arc) and was clutch down the stretch hitting on 16 of 21 free throw attempts. Overall Siyani averaged 8.0 points, 5.6 assists, and almost two steals per contest.

On Siyani's one side he had Tyus and on the other he had sharp shooting Isaiah Zierden who made 16 three-pointers over the weekend. Isaiah was the team's second leading scorer at 15.2 points per contest and a big part of this was Zierden's 39 percent three-point shooting on 41 attempts. Isaiah also made 20 of 22 free throws.

Inside Pulley received 8.6 points, 5.6 rebounds, and a couple blocks a game from Kyle Washington and 7.0 points and 4.4 rebounds a game from C.J. Neumann. Both players were reasonably consistent for the Panthers and fairly aggressive offensively. Washington attempted 50 shots in five games and was good on 40 percent of those attempts.

Going against 6-foot-9 310 pound Rotary center Zach Banner (offers from the entire Pac 10, half of the Big 10, half of the Big 12, half of the SEC, and so much more) Washington had 12 points, seven boards, and a pair of blocks against Banner's 16 points, five boards, and one block. And going against Georges Niang of BABC (who has eight east coast offers) Kyle produced 13 points, eight boards, and two blocks compared to 17 points and six boards for Niang.

Off the bench wing Thomas Sjoberg contributed five points and three rebounds per contest and sophomore standout Quintin Hooker earned the tag "Instant Offense" scoring 28 points in 55 minutes played.

This weekend the Pulley squad will be in action at the Howard Pulley Invitational in Eagan at the High Performance Academy.