The Santa Cruz Warriors squad added another win to their current record last night as they defeated the Stockton Kings 95-88 at the Kaiser Permanente Arena.
On today’s edition of TimeOut, I am going to give a quick recap of last night win for the Santa Cruz Warriors.
The Sea Dubs were without four players against the Kings: Antonius Cleveland had a right leg injury, Marcus Derrickson was with the Golden State Warriors in their game against the San Antonio Spurs at Oracle Arena.
Meanwhile, Damion Lee was out with a left ankle injury and Darius Morris had a right ankle injury. There’s nothing to be concerned about if you are a Sea Dubs fan.
The Warriors started off a slow note on the offensive side of the ball, scoring only six points with five minutes left. The thirteen points scored in the first quarter was the lowest number of points made by the Santa Cruz Warriors during the first quarter so far this season.
After a slow first quarter, the Warriors went on to score 32 points in the second quarter starting with a dunk from Jaleel Cousins off a Juan Toscano-Anderson steal.
What was apparent in the first half of the game was the team’s inconsistency. Into the second quarter, both teams were a combined 22% from the field and 19% from three-point range.
Here are few fun facts about the first half of the game for the Santa Cruz Warriors:
- Despite only scoring six points, Deyonta Davis had the highest plus-minus among all the Warriors and Kings players with a +19. Along with the six points, he had eight defensive rebounds, two offensive rebounds and one block.
- The Warriors scored twelve points off the Kings’ twenty-three turnovers while the Kings scored twenty-five points off the Warriors nineteen turnovers.
- Kendrick Nunn was the only player from the Santa Cruz Warriors to make a three-pointer for the first twenty-four minutes of playing time. All of the starters for the Sea Dubs attempted one three-pointer but none connected.
The third quarter was plagued with mini scoring droughts, but thankfully the hard work done in the second quarter didn’t affect the Warriors’ lead drastically going into the fourth. The Warriors had a 67-61 lead going into the fourth quarter.
Smailagic sparked the offense a bit to begin the fourth quarter, making two layups and a hook shot. Kevin Young and Gbinije also made contributions offensively for the Sea Dubs; however, it was Will Cherry who found his groove around the basket during the fourth quarter finishing off the night with twelve points, eight rebounds and five assists.
The highest scorer for the Warriors was Kendrick Nunn who scored twenty-one points. Not a bad night for the Santa Cruz Warriors as they head to Salt Lake to play against the Salt Lake Stars on Friday night at the Vivint Smart Home Arena.
The game will be aired live on Facebook Live at 10 p.m. E.T.