Warriors Rumble and Blowout Rhinos

The Nelson Warriors rebounded from a tough Monday night loss in impressive fashion, blowing out the visiting Southern California Leadership Academy Rhinos 118-55, setting the season-bests for scoring, points allowed, and margin of victory. Nelson, who was decidedly the bigger and more athletic squad, took advantage of the unbalanced matchup in convincing fashion, jumping out to an early 9-0 lead and never looking back. "To their credit," said head coach Kole Ebert, "they [the Rhinoes] never took a play off. They came out here in an undesirable situation and played hard. They gave us a good challenge despite the final score." The Warriors played to both their strengths and their opponent's weaknesses, scoring 30 points on 21 forced turnovers (turning the ball over 12 times themselves), and using their size advantage to snag 52 rebounds to their opponent's 33. Nelson ran the fastbreak to perfection as well, scoring 41 points on the break, allowing just 2.

"It seemed like we [the Warriors] were able to get into the paint whenever we wanted," remarked Kevin Miller, Vice President for Student Development and Government/History Faculty on the club's 70 points in the paint. "At times, Tommy (Randolph) and Terrin (Ross) looked like they could score at will too. I don't know if I even remember a single missed shot." They nearly didn't, missing a total of 5 of their combined 25 attempts. The team as a whole shot a sizzling 59.0% from the field while holding their opponent to just 29.9% and only 14.3% from beyond the arc (3-21).

The aforementioned Terrible T's of Tommy and Terrin led the team in scoring with 23 and 22 points respectively, with the latter grabbing a game-high 13 points, all off the bench. Larry Holmes finished with a season-high 18 points (shooting 6-7 from the charity stripe), 9 rebounds, and 5 assists off the bench. Elliot Offner also scored a season-high 11 points, including tying the team-high with three made 3's. Rob Jenkins (13 points and 10 assists), Harley Upton (12 points and 5 rebounds) Zaveion Bineyard (12 points), and Alijah Marsh, rounded out the team's scoring. Orlando Gonzales failed to score, but finished second on the team with 6 assists to pair with 3 rebounds.

Jordan Cabezas led the Rhinos in scoring with 18 points.

Up next for the Warriors are the Doane Tigers who will visit the Scott Activity Center on Wednesday, December 18.