Vipers Hold Off Warriors to Win D-League Title

There was just no stopping the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. 

In the end the Santa Cruz Warriors just didn't have enough firepower to keep up with the Vipers, who won their final 16 games to run off with their second NBA Development League championship in four years.

The finale of that impressive run came on Saturday night before 6,132 partisan fans at the State Farm Arena in Hidalgo, Texas, where Rio Grande Valley defeated the Warriors 102-91 to capture the D-League Finals 2 games to 0. The Vipers won the first game 112-102 on Thursday in Santa Cruz.

The Warriors never recovered from a 7-minute scoreless drought in the first period, fell behind by 17 points twice in the second quarter, then battled back to get within 1 point (82-81) with 7:30 remaining. They trailed by 2 (90-88) with 3:47 left but were outscored 12-3 down the stretch. With 2 minutes to go, they still trailed only 95-91, but the Vipers scored the last 7 points to account for the final score. It was much like Thursday when RVG scored the last 10 points to make it appear the game wasn't as close as it was.

"We played hard tonight just as we did all year. I'm proud of our players," Warriors coach Nate Bjorkgren said over the phone after the game. "You dig a hole for yourselves, and it makes it that harder to win. You can do it, and  I've seen it done a lot in the D-League this season. We had a couple of chances to get it done, but we couldn't get one (chance) to go our way. We couldn't stop their transition game and had too many turnovers -- We had eight in the first quarter alone -- and they just attacked the basket."

Santa Cruz couldn't stop the 1-2 punch of D.J. Kennedy and Glen Rice Jr. Kennedy finished with 27 points on 9-of-16 shooting, 7 rebounds and 6 assists, while Rice, who skipped this season at Georgia Tech and went to the D-League because he wasn't eligible for the NBA, had 25 points, 13 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals and 3 blocks.

"They have a lot of talented players and they got a couple of key buckets from (6-11 center Tim) Ohlbrecht," Bjorkgren said. 

The Warriors were led by Travis Leslie, who had a double-double with 16 points and 13 reounds. Scott Machado also had 16 points, Jeremy Tyler, who got into foul trouble again, and Maurice Baker 13 each and Hilton Armstrong 11 (with 6 rebounds). Lance Goulbourne chipped in with 9 rebounds. They lost forward Taylor Griffin early in the third quarter when he injured his left ankle that put him on crutches and sent him to a hospital. There's no word on his condition at this time.

The Vipers, who have been in the D-League Finals three of the past four years and are owned by the Houston Rockets, won their last championship in 2010. They finished the season with a 41-15 record (35-15 in the regular season and 6-0 in the playoffs) and won 21 of their last 23 games. Their only losses in the last two months came to the Warriors twice -- 130-112 in Santa Cruz on March 2 and 114-104 at home on March 15.

"Coach (Nick) Nurse did a heck of a job. I congratulate them," said Bjorkgren, who was an assistant coach under Nurse for four years with the Iowa Energy. "They played like champions and finishing with 10 straight wins in the regular season is quite an accomplishment, let alone sweeping the playoffs."

It was the second championship for Nurse as a coach in the D-League in just his second year as coach of the Vipers. Nurse won his first title with Bjorkgren as his chief assistant when the Energy beat RVG in 2011; the year before in 2010, RVG beat the Tulsa 66ers. Rio Grande Valley's run was interuppted last year when the Austin Toros beat the Los Angeles D-Fenders for the title.

The Warriors, owned by the Golden State Warriors, finished a successful first season in Santa Cruz after moving during the offseason from Bismarck, N.D., and changing their name from the Dakota Wizards. They finished with a 36-20 record, going 32-18 during the regular season in finishing second in the Western Division and 4-0  in the first two playoff series (ousting the Fort Wayne Mad Ants and defending champion Austin Toros) before dropping two games in the Finals.

"As I said,  I'm proud of our players ... and of our entire organization," Bjorkgren said. "They got a lot accomplished in such a short time in Santa Cruz. Our fans were outstanding and created a tremendous atmosphere. Everybody played a big part in it. It's too bad we couldn't bring home a championship, but overall it was a very good year."

The Warriors were down by 13 points at 82-69 early in the fourth quarter when they began their comeback, going on a 12-0 run led by Machado and Armstrong with a dunk by Goldbourne capping the spurt  to make the score 82-81. The Vipers called time out, and when they returned, they stopped the bleeding with three quick baskets -- a Toure Murry jumper, a Tyler Honeycutt dunk and a Kennedy jumper, and the Warriors were right back down by 7 points (88-81) with 5:28 to go.

Once again, the Sea Dubs from Surf City refused to quit. Leslie took over -- scoring a layup and a 3-point jumper and the W's were down 2 again (88-86).  Ohlbrecht countered with a dunk for the Vipers, before Baker made two free throws to cut the lead to 2 again (90-88). Then it was Rice's turn. The 6-6 guard countered with a 3-pointer, rebounded a Baker miss and put in a layup to make it 95-88. Leslie followed with a 3-pointer, but at 95-91 with 2 minutes left, it was the closest the Warriors would get. Olhbrecht made a layup and a tip-in to boost the lead back to 8, and when Machado missed 2 free throws with 65 seconds left, the season was over.

Once again, the Warriors were hurt by poor foul shooting, turnovers, failure to rebound at crucial times (numbers-wise they had one more 47-46), and the inability to stop the Vipers' transition game. They missed 9 free throws (18-of-27 -- RGV also missed 9, making 20-of-29) and finished with 24 turnovers. 

The game was probably lost in the first half when the Vipers scored 7 straight points to turn  a 14-10 lead into a 21-10 advantage, then extended the margin to 17 points twice -- the last at 56-39 with 43 seconds left in the half. A poor first quarter set the tone. After Stefhon Hannah made a basket with 7:35 to go, followed by two free throws by Griffin, the Warriors didn't score again in the opening period until Tyler made a basket with 39 seconds left -- going almost 7 full minutes without a field goal.

The only time the Warriors led was at 2-0. They could never get over the hump and regain the lead even with the stirring comebacks.