The Santa Cruz Warriors lost both their protest game and their originally scheduled game.
The Santa Cruz Warriors made basketball history on Friday at Kaiser Permanente Arena, losing an unprecedented two consecutive games to the Iowa Wolves –all in the same exact night!
For starters, the Sea Dubs had always been scheduled to host the Iowa Wolves in their second-to-last game of the regular season. They lost that game 112-101, dropping their regular season record to 23-25.
Santa Cruz was just completely out of rhythm the entire length of the game, giving up a 34-29 first quarter to the Wolves. The second quarter was basically a replay of the first quarter, resulting in a 67-54 lead for Iowa going into the third.
Iowa regressed to the mean after halftime, putting up a combined 45 points in the second half. The Warriors, however, failed to make a considerable run, trading baskets for the rest of night.
Six players scored in double-digits for the Sea Dubs, led by Terrence Jones‘ 18 points, six rebounds, two assists and one block off the bench. This was Jones’ first game back after missing about a month due to injury.
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Warriors two-way contract player Chris Boucher dropped in 14 points and four rebounds on 5-of-8 shooting. Michael Gbinije posted 12 points, three rebounds, four assists, one steal and one block, while Jeremy Pargo also had 12 points to go with three rebounds, nine assists and one block.
Avry Holmes recorded 12 points and six assists on 5-of-8 shooting off the bench. Trevor Thompson added 10 points and seven rebounds.
Damian Jones, fresh off an assignment from the Golden State Warriors, tallied nine points, eight rebounds, two steals and one block in 23 minutes.
Prior to their regulation game, however, the Warriors replayed the last 17.5 seconds of their Jan. 19 contest against the Wolves, which had originally ended 116-113.
Santa Cruz protested the outcome, citing a misapplication of the rules after the officiating crew incorrectly assessed Surf City a technical foul for calling an excessive timeout.
With the game board set to 111-111, the protest game didn’t go as hoped, ending with a steal by the Wolves and an easy game-winning layup.
Next: Damian Jones, Chris Boucher set to finish out G League season
Sea Dubs head coach Aaron Miles spoke on the matter at the end of night, saying the original game plan was to have Jeremy Pargo come off a screen from Damian Jones, opening up the floor for Pargo’s highly-regarded playmaking abilities.
What ended up happening was, put simply, a complete mess.
“It was all messed up, all messed up, man,” said Miles.
Hopefully, the Warriors get out to a better start Saturday night against the Reno Bighorns.