Earlier this season, East traveled to Bennett and came away with a 13-point victory.  At the time, not much was made of it.  The Tigers were a bit of an unknown and it seemed like East had just done what it was supposed to do.  Then Bennett registered big wins over McKinley and Riverside and became a well-known that jumped into the Buffalo News large school poll. 

 Ahh, so maybe that first win over Bennett was significant.  No, wait, Bennett was missing players against East, or maybe it just hadn't hit its stride yet.  Let's wait until they play again before we pass any judgements on who the better team is.

On Monday evening, the Yale Cup leading East Panthers (ranked sixth in the latest large school poll) hosted the rematch with Bennett (ranked eighth).  The Panthers came away with a 71-59 victory, continuing its streak of double-digit wins against league opponents not named McKinley.  In the win, East left little doubt who the better team was .

A basket from senior Chris Boyd put the Panthers up 6-4 early in the contest, and his team would never trail the rest of the way.  Boyd canned a 3-pointer at the end of the first quarter to put East up 19-9.  Another '3' from Boyd had the Panthers up by as many as 14 in the first half. 

Shortly before the halftime buzzer sounded, Bennett point guard William Vanoy shook his defender and drained one from beyond the arc to get the Tigers within nine, 31-22.  It was the closest the game had been since the start of the second quarter and seemed like it could be a boost of momentum for Bennett to start the third.  Instead, East scored the first seven points of the second half to go up 38-22, and led by at least 11 points the rest of the way.  With under two minutes left in the game, Tremmell Fisher scored back-to-back baskets, giving the Panthers a 69-51 lead.

Andre Jackson led a balanced scoring attack for East with 18 points.  Boyd scored 16 points, Dominique House finished with 13 points, and Fisher added 12.

Vanoy had a game-high 25 points for the Tigers, who fall to third place in the Yale Cup Division I with the loss.  Javon Fogan scored 13 points and Derrick Turner ended with 12 points.

-centercourt