Warriors Win First Playoff Game on the Road; One Game Away from FInals

The Santa Cruz Warriors are just one game away from reaching the NBADevelopment League Finals. And they have two chances to do it  after taking a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three semifinal playoffs Wednesday  night by turning back the Austin Toros 106-101 in Cedar Park, Texas, in a game nationally televised by CBS Sports Network.

The Warriors, who took control midway through the second quarter and then thwarted every run the Toros made in the second half, will try to clinch the series Friday night at Kaiser Permanente Arena before their usually-racous home crowd in a game slated to start at 6:30 p.m.

Tickets are still available. Should they fail, the Warriors will get a second chance in the Santa Cruz arena on Monday night at the same time. The winner of the series will advance to the best-of-three

Finals against either the Rio Grande Valley Vipers or the Tulsa 66ers, whose semifinal series starts Thursday night in Tulsa.

 As he has done all season, Warriors coach Nate Bjorkgren masterly juggled his players  to produce a balanced scoring attack, to play strong defense when it counted, to control the offensive boards (16) and to overcome 21 turnovers. Stefhon Hannah led the scoring with 19 points, followed closely by Jeremy Tyler (17), Travis Leslie (16) and Cameron Jones (15), as the Warriors avenged their worst loss of the season and pushed last year's D-League champions to within one game of being eliminated.

 In their lone regular season meeting, the Warriors blew an 18-point lead, then lost to the Toros by 18 -- 96-78 when they were outscored 24-9 in the final quarter at the D-League Showcase in Reno.

This time Santa Cruz made sure it didn't happen deep in the heart of Texas before 2,298 local fans after they took an 80-70 lead into the final 12 minutes. The Toros got to within 3 points at 88-85 with 7 minutes left on a Chris Roberts' 3-point jumper, but Tyler responded with a layup, and Austin never got closer than 4 points afterward. They threatened several times, but Lance Goulbourne came up with several big plays -- he had 12 points and team-high 7 rebounds off the bench, and big man Hilton Armstrong responded with key rebounds and clutch foul shots.

Down the stretch, the Warriors made 12-of-18 free throws in the final 4 minutes after they had once again opened a 10-point lead (88-78).

 “It’s been a long journey, but everybody is sticking together," said Hannah, who also had six assists and called his teammates "like brothers in the lockerroom. When it gets tough, we are like family.”

 Lester Hudson, considered by many to be the top D-League prospect for the NBA, kept the Toros coming back with his long-range shooting that produced a game-high 25 points and five 3-pointers. JaMychal Green logged the lone double-double with 11 points and a game-high 16 rebounds, and Jamarr Sanders scored 17 points.

 The first quarter started slowly with lots of missed shots and turnovers in which the score was tied five times before the Toros led 25-22 at the end of the period. The Warriors scored 34 points in the second quarter to erase the deficit and go up by seven at halftime.

 Santa Cruz shot 48.8 percent from the field to Austin’s 43.9 percent and held the edge on rebounds (46-39), assists (24-15) and steals (14-11) and committed fewer turnovers (21-20). The Warriors did miss 9 free throws, but made 21-of-32 overall and had 11 more attempts than the home team, which was forced to foul in an attempt to catch up in those final 4 minutes. The Toros made 18-of-21.