Santa Cruz Warriors Move On in the D-League Playoffs With Win Over the Mad Ants

The first-year Santa Cruz Warriors can now check off a playoff series win on their goals list as they take one step closer to become D-League champions after a dominant performance on Saturday night.

There was no looking back for the Warriors after a huge 110-92 win over the Fort Wayne Mad Ants in game two of the first round playoff series in front of a sold out crowd at the Kaiser Permanente Arena.

“It feels good to move on to the next round,” said Warriors head coach Nate Bjorkgren. “We get a chance to watch our next round opponents play. We're going to do that tomorrow and start getting ready for the second round."

Santa Cruz took control of the game after the second half when they opened up a 14-2 run to start the third quarter and went up as much as 20 points after a 9-0 run in the fourth quarter.

The Jeremy Tyler show got off to a late start, yet again, but he managed to put up double-double figures with a team-high 25 points — 16 points in the fourth — and 11 rebounds.

“He does a great job running the floor and he does a really good job of trying to establish position,” said Bjorkgren. “The guys on our team knew he had a big game on Wednesday and they were trying to feed him again.”

Other players that stood out in Saturday night’s series clinching win were Taylor Griffin and Hilton Armstrong who also posted up double-double performances on the court. Griffin finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds and Armstrong racked up 17 points along with 10 rebounds. 

Forward Stepfon Hannah got the ball rolling with intense play and early scoring that set the pace.

The game got off to a bit of a sluggish start when both teams struggled to get the ball into the hoop. There were eight lead changes in the first quarter and the Warriors shot a measly 33 percent. But once the home team went on top in the second quarter they stayed there for good. 

The closest Fort Wayne ever came to Santa Cruz was right before halftime when they trailed 52-47.  But Tyler and company made sure to finish the game strong and went up as much as 23 points in the fourth quarter.

“I felt like everybody was playing hard,” said Tyler. “I felt like everybody wanted to win and wanted to move forward, that’s the most important thing. My shots came when things was in rotation for me, it didn’t come early it came late in the game where I was open and I wasn’t forcing shots.”

And if it wasn’t enough pressure to be playing a postseason game inside a sold out arena, a couple of members from the Golden State Warriors made a special appearance. Harrison Barnes, Draymond Green, and Festus Ezili were on hand to watch their minor league squad play and it may have sparked a bit of motivation in them to get the win.

“I told them before they got here it was good to see them,” said Tyler after the game. “Now we’re probably going to go grab some food and hang out, I haven’t seen them in a while.”

For the Mad Ants Brandon Wallace busted out a double-double performance with 12 points plus 10 rebounds and Tony Mitchell was able to rack up 20 points.  Ron Howard came off the bench and scored a team-high 25 points.

For Fort Wayne it’s back to the drawing board until next season. But as for Santa Cruz, now it’s on to the D-League semifinal where they’ll face the winner between the No. 1 Bakersfield Jam and No. 6 Austin Toros.

“We worked hard enough to get there,” said Tyler. “We still have a lot more games to go and we still have a championship to win.”