Warriors Polish Off Armor Late in Fourth, 90-81

The Santa Cruz Warriors rallied in the fourth quarter and completed the sweep in a close game against the visiting Springfield Armor 90-81.

Only one word can be used to describe this game, fight. From start to finish both teams battled on defense and shut down each other offenses, as both shot below 40 percent from the field for the game.

"I thought it was an absolute fight out there," said head coach Nate Bjorkgren. "Just both teams going at each other. It was just a physical, rebounding battle type game and both teams were really scrapping and fighting."

The game started sluggish for the Warriors as their starting five struggled to get anything going in the first quarter; however the bench players came into the game and gave the offense a lift in the first half.

Cameron Jones and Chris Johnson both finished in the double figures, Lance Goulbourne had a solid game rebounding and Carlon Brown and Justin Johnson both scored big buckets when need, as well as making the crowd oh and ah with their sensational drives to the basket.

The critical point came with just a little more than four minutes remaining when the Warriors had a two point lead and the score was 78-76. On the inbound,  Mo Baker was hit in the face incidentally and fell down in pain. Play continued and the Warriors were forced to play four on five on the defensive end. The Armor used excellent ball rationing, and numbers, to find a wide open man for three and take the lead 79-78.

On the next possesion for the Warriors, Travis Leslie, who finished with 17 points on the night, drove hard to the basket and drew a foul in the paint much to the disgust of Armor head coach Robert MacKinnon. Within just seconds of Mackinnon reacting to the play he was handed a technical foul and the Warriors were handed the chance to take a two point lead late in the game.

Leslie would sink the technical foul shot and only one of his two free throw attempts to put the Warriors up by one point 80-79.

With the game still in jeopardy the Warriors buckled down on the defensive end and made a stop. Taylor Griffin decided that it was winning time as he called for the ball, backed down his defender and finished with a baby hook to extend the lead to three points. Griffin was not done by any means, as he had a huge blocked shot that led to a Travis Leslie finish at the rim to put the Warriors up 84-79 with just 2:13 left.

"I told them that we need to put together about three or four stops here down the stretch," said Bjorkgren. "If we start stringing those together, and they did a good job with that."

The Armor didn't quit as guard Christian Polk hit a pull-up jumper from the corner of the key to cut the lead to three. The Warriors then showed their fight and heart as a missed shot on the offensive end bounced through four different pairs of Warrior and Armor hands, but finally Griffin grabbed it and finished with an emphatic two-handed dunk that eclosed the door.

"We were on the boards hard at the very end," said Griffin. "I think that was the key to the game right there."

With the win the Warriors are now 8-2 and are on a four game win streak. They will be in action again on New Years day at 2 p.m. against the Sioux Falls Skyforce.