Ryan Yerby hit 6 three's with 2 plus minutes remaining in FIRST QUARTER. The kid can shoot it!!
Athlete of the Week: Half Moon Bay's Ryan Yerby
Half Moon Bay’s Ryan Yerby had a first quarter for the ages last Wednesday by hitting six 3-pointers as the Cougars scored 30 in the period en route to a 72-32 win over South City.
It was a week of big scoring figures for the Half Moon Bay boys’ basketball team.
Fortifying their first-place standing in the Peninsula Athletic League North Division, the Cougars kept their perfect league record in tact with blowouts of South City and Oceana, drubbing the two teams by a cumulative score of 153-55. Then, in winding down the week with a 68-61 non-league victory at Acalanes, junior forward Ethan Menzies racked up a career-high 25 points.
No one in the orange and black, however, enjoyed as thrilling a scoring run as Daily Journal Athlete of the Week, Ryan Yerby.
The senior forward scored a career-high 24 points in last Wednesday’s 72-32 thrashing of South City, igniting HMB with — count ’em — six 3-pointers in the first quarter.
“I was feeling pretty good,” Yerby said.
The Cougars are really cooking as they head into the home stretch of league play. Shooting for a three-peat as PAL North Division champions, HMB is doing so with a dramatically different roster than it has over the past two seasons.
Graduating three college-bound seniors from last year’s team — center Austin Hilton is at Linfield College-Oregon; forward Tommy Nuno is at Fresno City College; and guard Jake Salinero is at Skyline College — this year the Cougars looked to Yerby as the most experienced team leader on the court.
With just four seniors on roster, Yerby — the only three-year starter of the quartet — has forged a reputation as a jack-of-all-trades, being relied upon as a scorer, a rebounder and even the team’s most reliable inbounder.
“Ryan has had a very steadying influence and he’s asked to do a lot,” Cougars head coach Rich Forslund said. “He’s kind of asked to do everything and he’s been good at fulfilling all those different roles.”
Unlike the saying about jacks-of-all-trades, however, Yerby has certainly proven a master of one as a 3-point marksman. According to MaxPreps.com, Yerby has shot 40.2 percent from beyond the arc this season, and his 37 converted treys rank tops in the PAL North.
If all HMB’s games were against South City, though, that number would likely be a lot higher. Wednesday’s outburst wasn’t Yerby’s first lambasting of a Warriors team. Three years ago, as a freshman with the junior-varsity squad, Yerby dropped 11 treys at South City to clock 33 points, a total he has yet to surpass in a HMB uniform.
“I always tease him, ‘I need to get a South City jersey for you,’ before the game because every time he plays South City he has a great game,” Forslund said.
“I don’t know what it is,” Yerby said. “I can’t really explain it. I’m just lucky somehow.”
Although HMB maintains just a one-game lead in the PAL North with five games to play, the Cougars can all but wrap up the three-peat title this Friday in a showdown with second-place Jefferson. So long as the Cougars handle fifth-place El Camino on Wednesday, a win over Jefferson would give HMB a two-game cushion in the standings with three to play.
After the Cougars posted a 6-6 record through non-league play, many were predicting the end of their PAL North rule. But no one in league has even come close to knocking off the reigning champs; the closest single-game scoring differential was in the first Jefferson matchup Jan. 13 when HMB cruised to a 66-54 win.
“We’re about right where I thought we’d be, to be frank,” Forslund said.
This era of HMB dominance isn’t merely confined to the basketball court though. The Cougars football team repeated as Central Coast Section Division V champions this season, a run that saw their season last until the Nov. 26 championship game, a 41-24 victory over Menlo School.
This is where the basketball team’s 6-6 non-league record comes into focus. With the hoops season starting on Dec. 6 in the Burlingame Lions’ Club Tournament, the five Cougars who play both football and basketball weren’t nearly in basketball shape. HMB ultimately went 1-2 in the Lions’ Club tourney, including a loss to host Burlingame, a team that is currently 5-14 overall.
According to Forslund, the entirety of the Cougars roster is just now settling in as a cohesive unit. Most of the rocky road suffered to this point was due to the football effect, though one senior guard, Isiah Margate, also started late as a transfer from Oceana.
According to Yerby, though, the football effect also has an upside, stemming from the fact that — to quote the DJ Khaled song — all the Cougars do is win, win, win no matter what.
“It’s really cool because we have a lot of football guys on our basketball team, so they’re excited because they want to win another CCS (championship) and be successful in different sports,” Yerby said. “And we want to show we’re just as good as the football program. Everybody wants to just keep winning.”
Athlete of the Week: Half Moon Bay's Ryan Yerby
It was a week of big scoring figures for the Half Moon Bay boys’ basketball team.
Fortifying their first-place standing in the Peninsula Athletic League North Division, the Cougars kept their perfect league record in tact with blowouts of South City and Oceana, drubbing the two teams by a cumulative score of 153-55. Then, in winding down the week with a 68-61 non-league victory at Acalanes, junior forward Ethan Menzies racked up a career-high 25 points.
No one in the orange and black, however, enjoyed as thrilling a scoring run as Daily Journal Athlete of the Week, Ryan Yerby.
The senior forward scored a career-high 24 points in last Wednesday’s 72-32 thrashing of South City, igniting HMB with — count ’em — six 3-pointers in the first quarter.
“I was feeling pretty good,” Yerby said.
The Cougars are really cooking as they head into the home stretch of league play. Shooting for a three-peat as PAL North Division champions, HMB is doing so with a dramatically different roster than it has over the past two seasons.
Graduating three college-bound seniors from last year’s team — center Austin Hilton is at Linfield College-Oregon; forward Tommy Nuno is at Fresno City College; and guard Jake Salinero is at Skyline College — this year the Cougars looked to Yerby as the most experienced team leader on the court.
With just four seniors on roster, Yerby — the only three-year starter of the quartet — has forged a reputation as a jack-of-all-trades, being relied upon as a scorer, a rebounder and even the team’s most reliable inbounder.
“Ryan has had a very steadying influence and he’s asked to do a lot,” Cougars head coach Rich Forslund said. “He’s kind of asked to do everything and he’s been good at fulfilling all those different roles.”
Unlike the saying about jacks-of-all-trades, however, Yerby has certainly proven a master of one as a 3-point marksman. According to MaxPreps.com, Yerby has shot 40.2 percent from beyond the arc this season, and his 37 converted treys rank tops in the PAL North.
If all HMB’s games were against South City, though, that number would likely be a lot higher. Wednesday’s outburst wasn’t Yerby’s first lambasting of a Warriors team. Three years ago, as a freshman with the junior-varsity squad, Yerby dropped 11 treys at South City to clock 33 points, a total he has yet to surpass in a HMB uniform.
“I always tease him, ‘I need to get a South City jersey for you,’ before the game because every time he plays South City he has a great game,” Forslund said.
“I don’t know what it is,” Yerby said. “I can’t really explain it. I’m just lucky somehow.”
Although HMB maintains just a one-game lead in the PAL North with five games to play, the Cougars can all but wrap up the three-peat title this Friday in a showdown with second-place Jefferson. So long as the Cougars handle fifth-place El Camino on Wednesday, a win over Jefferson would give HMB a two-game cushion in the standings with three to play.
After the Cougars posted a 6-6 record through non-league play, many were predicting the end of their PAL North rule. But no one in league has even come close to knocking off the reigning champs; the closest single-game scoring differential was in the first Jefferson matchup Jan. 13 when HMB cruised to a 66-54 win.
“We’re about right where I thought we’d be, to be frank,” Forslund said.
This era of HMB dominance isn’t merely confined to the basketball court though. The Cougars football team repeated as Central Coast Section Division V champions this season, a run that saw their season last until the Nov. 26 championship game, a 41-24 victory over Menlo School.
This is where the basketball team’s 6-6 non-league record comes into focus. With the hoops season starting on Dec. 6 in the Burlingame Lions’ Club Tournament, the five Cougars who play both football and basketball weren’t nearly in basketball shape. HMB ultimately went 1-2 in the Lions’ Club tourney, including a loss to host Burlingame, a team that is currently 5-14 overall.
According to Forslund, the entirety of the Cougars roster is just now settling in as a cohesive unit. Most of the rocky road suffered to this point was due to the football effect, though one senior guard, Isiah Margate, also started late as a transfer from Oceana.
According to Yerby, though, the football effect also has an upside, stemming from the fact that — to quote the DJ Khaled song — all the Cougars do is win, win, win no matter what.
“It’s really cool because we have a lot of football guys on our basketball team, so they’re excited because they want to win another CCS (championship) and be successful in different sports,” Yerby said. “And we want to show we’re just as good as the football program. Everybody wants to just keep winning.”
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