Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

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Findlay Prep notches easy win with title hopes on the line

Pilots stay undefeated in 76-55 rout during tournament’s first game

NORTH BETHESDA, Md. – Tristan Thompson sat along a baseline Friday night and watched Rockville (Md.) Montrose Christian dismantle Friends’ Central by 43 points.

In the previous ESPN RISE National High School Invitational quarterfinal game, Thompson led Findlay College Prep with 20 points and eight rebounds in 19 reserve minutes.

The Pilots improved to 31-0 in their 76-55 victory over Beckley (W.V.) Mountain State Academy, and Findlay will face Montrose in a semifinal at 10 a.m. Saturday on ESPN2.

Montrose (20-2) only lost to powerful Oak Hill (39-0) this season, in double overtime of a tournament title game in Hawaii and by six points a month ago on ESPN2.

A victory over Montrose on Saturday morning could launch second-seeded Findlay into a championship juggernaut against top-seeded Oak Hill at noon Sunday on ESPN.

Cliff Findlay, the former UNLV center and Las Vegas-area automobile magnate who founded the prep program in his parents’ name three years ago, is attending the tournament with wife Donna.

Late Friday night, Thompson paid close attention to Montrose center Mouphtaou Yarou, a 6-foot-10, 250-pound senior who will play at Villanova next fall.

“They try to run their offense around him,” Thompson said of the Mustangs, from nearby Rockville. “They scrap to get him open.”

Yarou, from the West African Republic of Benin, averaged more than 20 points and 12 rebounds in his lone season at Montrose, so Thompson and Carlos Lopez have their semifinal challenge.

Lopez, the center who will play at UNLV next season, had 14 points and nine rebounds.

That low-post duo guided the Pilots to a 47-25 edge in rebounds over Mountain State (23-7), which was taken out of its game early when West Virginia-bound center Deniz Kilicki got called for his second foul just three minutes into it.

Kilicki finished with eight points and four boards. The Turkey native averaged double those figures this season.

“That was the turning point in my eyes,” said Falcons junior guard Noah Cottrill. “We got outrebounded by 22? That’s the key. Deniz gets us 10 rebounds a game. He’s a big dude.

“We have to learn to go crash the boards. We came out and played hard, and we knew they’re good. Arguably, they’re the best team in the country. We gave it our all.”

Cottrill led everyone with 23 points, and he nailed six of his 12 attempts from beyond the 3-point arc. Some were way beyond the arc.

“He’s a pretty good player,” said Findlay senior guard D.J. Richardson. “He’s a junior and he’s smart, so he’s a lot like Cory (Joseph). But I told coach from the beginning of the game that I wanted to guard him.”

Richardson usually draws the best player on the other team to defend, but Pilots coach Mike Peck initially had the Texas-bound Avery Bradley hound Cottrill.

Eventually, Richardson switched onto Cottrill, who averages 26 points and will play at West Virginia in 2010.

“When I guarded him he only had one 3-pointer,” Richardson said. “We did pretty well, but he got some good looks from NBA range. I didn’t expect him to shoot from there. He hit one on me. That was about all.”

Bradley added 15 points, with six rebounds, five assists and a steal, for Findlay, and his physical defensive style shook Cottrill.

“My coach put it well, saying I got to get my handles tighter,” Cottrill said. “I realized today what a McDonald’s All-American is in Avery Bradley. He’s a great defender and a great offensive player.

“I look forward to next season, when I believe we’re going to play them at Findlay and at our home. It’ll be fun.”

Joseph tallied 13 points, four boards, four assists and two steals for the Pilots, and Richardson recorded 10 points.

Findlay raced out to a 24-11 lead after one quarter, but Bradley said he became a little nervous when the Falcons outscored the Pilots 10-7 in the first 3 1/2 minutes of the third quarter.

That cut Mountain State’s deficit to 46-34. With one more shot, Bradley said, the Falcons could have been within a single-digit reach of Findlay.

But the Pilots held their foes to only two points the rest of the quarter, and Lopez put in a Joseph miss, Joseph took it in strong from the right wing and Lopez scored an easy transition basket.

Falcons coach Rob Fulford was forced to call a timeout with 2:10, and Findlay kept pressing. Lopez hit a nifty turn-in layup on the left side and Joseph sailed in for a fast-break layin.

The Pilots led by 20 going into the final quarter and never trailed by less than that spread the rest of the way.

Richardson was amazed that Bradley missed a dunk. “That was kind of crazy,” Richardson said. However, Richardson also missed a jam, so he kept his review of Bradley’s miss to a minimum.

“I think we let up a bit,” Bradley said. “We played hard, but we definitely let up just a little. We have to play hard the whole game. We can’t let up, especially in the next game.”

That’s why Thompson so intently studied Yarou after Findlay’s victory.

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