Boys Basketball: Short-handed Young flies by Manley

Updated: December 21, 2011 9:04PM

Young is still not completely healthy. The frightening part is imagining how good they are when fully loaded.

Even so, the Dolphins looked a lot closer to the juggernaut many expected them to be against an overmatched Manley team. A week after scoring just 29 points against No. 24 Orr in a loss, Young appeared a radically different team.

Despite playing without injured starters Tommy Hamilton Jr. and Jermaine Morgan, the visiting No. 25 Dolphins had 10 different players score in hammering the host Wildcats 81-38 Wednesday.

In a prelude to its clash with top-ranked Simeon Thursday night at UIC, Jahlil Okafor scored 18 points and added seven rebounds and two blocked shots to power the Dolphins (4-1, 2-1 Red-West). Okafor accounted for his totals in playing the equivalent of two quarters.

Behind the inspired early play of center Darnell Lindsey (12 points, six rebounds), the Wildcats hung close. They used a 7-3 early second quarter run to pull within 30-25.

Okafor and fellow sophomore Paul White combined for 12 points during a 19-4 Dolphins’ blitz that pushed their lead to 49-30 at the break.

Okafor hammered down two dunks during the stretch.

White (10 points, seven rebounds, four assists, four blocks) did a little bit of everything. He scored twice driving to the basket and assisted Scott Kinsley (10 points) on a three-point play off a steal.

Sophomore guard Miles Reynolds drilled two three-pointers in scoring eight of his 13 points in the first half.

The Dolphins opened the third quarter with a 15-4 burst that turned the game into a rout. Jordan Smith, the team’s best outside shooter, added eight points. During one dominant flurry in the third quarter, Smith and 6-6 Nake Brooks combined for four consecutive dunks.

With Young up 75-36 after three quarters, the fourth quarter was played with a running clock. Gabriel Snyder scored eight points.

Javon Linson contributed eight points for the Wildcats (0-7, 0-4).

Young coach Tyrone Slaughter declined to make his players available to talk after the game.

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