Don Ketchum
Former Staff Writer, AZPreps365.com

Scottsdale Prep boys hoops combines youth with quality

January 11, 2014 by Don Ketchum, AZPreps365


Scottsdale Prep has a young boys basketball team, but the Spartans are good and getting better.

They have six sophomores, three juniors, two freshmen and one senior.

In back-to-back home games, the Spartans defeated defending Division IV champ Glendale Joy Christian 75-57 on Friday night (Jan. 10), and on Saturday night (Jan. 11) came back with a 77-66 win over 2012 champ Phoenix Country Day School.

Scottsdale Prep (14-2), the top team in Division IV power points, did it against No. 6 PCDS (10-3) with Mr. Inside, 6-foot-8 Yuval Bennett-Yakoby, and Mr. Outside, Daniel Lybbert. Both are sophomores.

Bennett-Yakoby followed up an 18-point, 12-rebound effort against Joy with 23 points and 10 rebounds against PCDS. Lybbert has as sweet of an outside shot that you would want to see. He connected on five of seven shots from 3-point range and finished with 15 points.

Lone senior Matt Munsil had 15 points and 11 rebounds and junior guard  Ben Arqueros had 12 points and nine assists.

Scottsdale Prep ran up a big 10-point lead in the first half against PCDS, but the Eagles went on a 13-2 run over the final four minutes to take a 30-28 lead at halftime.

“We had an emotional game against Joy, and the guys let down a bit early,’’ said Scottsdale Prep coach Chad Clum. “We were outhustled, outworked, and we took bad shots.

“It was good that we were able to come back and win, but I expected more out of them. We haven’t really played four quarters together. We need to keep plugging away.’’

Bennett-Yakoby scored nine points in the third quarter to help Scottsdale Prep regain control with a 22-11 advantage.

Lybbert and Brock Petty hit 3-pointers in the fourth quarter and Arqueros converted eight of 10 free throws in the final 1:50 to keep the game out of reach.

PCDS also had a pair of long-range shooters. Andrew Ekmark hit five 3’s and finished with 27 points, and Nihaal Reddy had six big shots and totaled 22 points.