Warriors Hoping for a Reversal of Fortune

Saturday is D-Day for the Santa Cruz Warriors, who find it in the unlikely place of Hidalgo, Texas.

Either  they defeat the Rio Valley Grande Vipers in the second game of the NBA Development League Finals or their inaugural season representing Santa Cruz will be over. The Warriors put themselves in a 1-0 hole on Thursday night when they lost a 112-102 heartbreaker in  the first game of the best-of-three series in their final home game of the year at Kaiser Permanente Arena. 

Despite the 10-point advantage at the buzzer, the game was much closer throughout and wasn't decided until the final 30 seconds when the Vipers made the plays, and the Warriors didn't -- disappointing the 2,505 fans that made up the 25th sellout of the season.

Saturday's game will be broadcast live at 5 p.m. on Santa Cruz area radio station KION (1460 AM or 101.1 FM), but there will be no live television. The fledgling CBS Sports Network will not show it in Warriors territory until 10 p.m. on tape delay. While the D-League game is being played in Hidalgo, local fans will get to watch a National Lacrosse League playoff game followed by an Arena Football League regular-season game.

Should the Warriors win Saturday, a third game will be needed on the Vipers home court at the State Farm Arena on Monday night to decide the champion. Coach Nate Bjorkgren says neither he nor his players are daunted by the task of winning two straight games on the road despite the fact RGV had the second best home record this season (20-5 plus 2-0 in the first two playoff series).

During the regular season, the Warriors went 13-12 away from home and in the playoffs have won their only two away games -- at Fort Wayne, Ind., and Austin, Texas (the W's were 2-0 in each series). They also won the only regular season meeting played in Hidalgo, back on March 15 when they beat the Vipers 114-104. That enabled the W's to win the season series over RGV 2-1. In back-to-back games in Santa Cruz in early March, the Warriors lost the first game 131-100, then came back the next night to win 130-112.

"We lost the first game to them before," Bjorkgren said, "then came back and won the next two, including one there. So it's possible we can do it again. I never believe we're going to lose, and I'm not going to start now."

For the Warriors to win, however, 6-10, 260-pound center Jeremy Tyler, who has been a bullwark coming off the bench since being assigned from the parent Golden State Warriors, will have to stay out of foul trouble. Tyler, who missed the three regular season games against the Vipers, got his third foul in the first minute of the second quarter in Thursday's loss. Afterward, he was mostly ineffective the rest of the game, except for two consecutive baskets in the final quarter when his layup tied the score at 102 with 1:34 left -- the Warriors' last points in the game.

Tyler got his fifth foul (it takes six in pro basketball to foul out) with 9:20 left in the game, and he had to go to the bench again. He returned with 2:30 remaining and helped in the comeback, but overall it wasn't enough. He  finished with 9 points and 6 rebounds in just 20 minutes of playing time and got testy with the officials, getting one of the Warriors four technical fouls. "The foul trouble took some of the aggressiveness out of his play," Bjorkgren said. 

And aggressive is what the Warriors have to be -- in order to stop the RVG's fast pace and strong rebounding. The Vipers scored 28 points off 20 Warriors' turnovers with 25 of them coming on fast-break opportunities and outrebounded the W's 57-44 that led to 24 second-chance points and 52 in the paint.

Forward Glen Rice Jr. had 33 points and 10 rebounds, 6-5 guard Toure Murry a triple-double (17 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists) and 7-foot center Chris Daniels a double-double (16 points, 10 rebounds). Although forward D.J. Kennedy was kept under control (0-for-3 from 3-point range with 16 points) he made a short jumper in tight coverage that gave the Vipers the lead for good at 104-102 with 47 seconds left.

"We have to slow down their transition game, rebound better and take care of the ball ," Bjorkgren said by phone Saturday after the team's shoot-around. "We had 8 turnovers in the fourth quarter and we can't do that. We have to have more opportunities at the basket.

"We also have to play better team defense and make our foul shots. And I believe we're going to do it."

The Warriors would have been in a better position to win if they hadn't missed 11 free throws. Travis Leslie, who led the team with 19 points, missed 3-of-6, 6-11 center Hilton Armstrong missed 3-of-7 and guard Stefhon Hannah missed 3-of-5. Tyler, who was 32-for-42 at the foul line in his previous four games, only made two free-throw attempts (he sank one).  

The Warriors know their recipe for success. Now they have to do it. Otherwise, Santa Cruz will have to wait for another season to join the ranks of championship cities.