Harvesters move up to No. 2 in nation

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RORY MOORE

Jacore Williams dribbles the ball past a Dallas Premier Prep player

NATALI CALDERON, Contributor

The Eastfield basketball team heads into the winter break having won 11 of 12 games, with its only loss coming against Division I South- western Christian by eight points.

Eastfield leads all Dallas Athletic Conference teams in wins and secured the No. 2 ranking in the Nov. 28 Division III national poll.

North Lake (6-6) is ninth, Richland (4-6) is ranked 10th and Mountain View (9-3) is 15th. Sophomore guard Jacore Williams leads the nation in scoring, averaging 22.1 points per game. The Harvesters also lead the nation in team scoring, averaging 129.4 points per game, and have already made 172 3-pointers, which is almost twice as many as the next closest team, Northern Essex, with 91.

Things will get more difficult after the break, however. Eastfield will begin the intense conference season at 1 p.m. Jan 21 with a home game against Cedar Valley. The Harvesters defeated the Suns 119-65 on Nov. 16 in a game that didn’t count in the conference standings.

“It wasn’t a conference game, but it means a lot to get out to the conference that we’re a serious threat,” first-year head coach Dexter Young said. “I liked playing them, beating them and making the conference know we’re here. We’re coming to win.”

Several Harvesters have had big offensive games this season. Sophomore guard Jacob Sanders scored 22 points and sophomore forward Tylan Harris had 39 points against Creating Young Minds Prep, while freshman guard Jamille Barnett and Williams scored a combined 45 points against DFW Prep.

“Every game is a different player or group leading us in scoring points,” Young said.

The Harvesters finished second in the conference behind North Lake last season but still advanced to the national tournament, where they finished fourth. This year, Young wants Eastfield to play with more pressure and score even more points each game.

“At the end of the day, we all want to win nationals,” Williams said.