Warriors Sweep Basketball Double-Header with Men's Victory

Immediately following a rousing victory by the Nelson women's basketball team, the men took the court hoping to pull off a rare basketball sweep, doing so with a dominant 103-68 victory over the visiting Noble Knights. The victory was the clubs fourth in-a-row, closing out the men's second to last home stand, as they head out on a short one-game road trip before closing out the regular season with two final home games.

Trailing by a point five minutes into the game, the Warriors jumped ahead for good with a 20-4 run, bookened by Zaveion Bineyard three-point shots. However, despite maintaining a double-digit lead through the remainder of the half in which they led by 14 points, it seemed like they were leaving a little something on the table. "I felt like we could have played a little bit better in the first half," noted head coach Kole Ebert following his team's 17th victory on the season. "We had seven turnovers and we missed a lot of shots that we normally make. But we got into the locker room, settled ourselves, re-focused on what we wanted to do, discussed a few adjustments, and got back to work. I am very pleased how they attacked the defense in the second half."

The second half was dominated offensively by Harley Upton who poured in 24 points on 8-13 shooting and 5-9 from beyond the arc in that stretch alone. After Rob Jenkins scored 11 of the team's first 14 points out of half setting the already rowdy crowd into a frenzy, Harley caught fire, nailing all five of his 3's in just a four-minute white-hot stretch. His three-point shooting, long been a highlight of his all season, has him placed among the nation's elite NCCAA snipers, his first make drained at the 9:35 mark, continued his season-long stretch of making at least one outside shot in every game, with his final total notching the sixth time this year in which he had made at least five in a game.

As a squad, the Warriors dropped at least 100 points for the tenth time on the season, and their third consecutive game, raising their season-average scoring to a blistering 94.9 points per game.

Upton finished with a game-high 28 points, along with 6 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 blocks. Bineyard capped off his stellar first half with 21 points of his own, plus 5 boards. Jenkins and Terrin Ross each finished with 15 points, with the former snagging 7 rebounds while the latter grabbed 10 for his fourth double-double this season. Orlando Gonzales dished out a game-high 10 assists, and finished just 1 point and 2 rebounds short of a triple-double.

Anthony McManus led the Knights with 16 points and 4 rebounds.

As mentioned, the Warriors hit the road next week for the final time, taking on Southern California Leadership University on Monday, February 17, at Noon, before heading home for the season's final games on February 20, and 22.

Do not forget to follow Nelson Athletics on X at @NelsonWarriors and Instagram at @nelsonwarriors.athletics.