Del Norte takes 5th at tourney

REDDING — Another day another one-point victory for the Del Norte High boys varsity basketball team.

The Warriors downed Kennedy High of Fremont 68-67 to take the consolation (5th place) game at the Hornet Classic at Enterprise High School on Saturday. On Friday the Warriors downed fellow Big 5 Conference opponent Arcata 48-47.

Del Norte was led by senior Cody Hoffman who finished with 20 points. He was also clutch for the squad on the free throw line, going 6-for-7 from the charity stripe in the second half.

“He was money down the stretch,” Warrior head coach Scott Alexander said. “That was another big win for us.”

The contest started fairly evenly matched, with the score 14-14 the end of the first. By the half, the Warriors had a 31-27 lead. In the third the Titans narrowed the  Warrior lead to 46-45.

In the fourth quarter, the Warriors found their groove and took a 10-point lead with about two minutes remaining.

But Kennedy (7-7), known as an athletic up-tempo team, quickly got back into the game thanks to sophomore guard Chris Murry. In a short span Murry made two three-pointers and was fouled, sinking both free throw shots to bring his team right back into the game. Murry had five three-pointers in the second half and finished with 23 points.

With under a minute left, Warrior Chris Davidson hit a huge three-pointer to give Del Norte a four-point lead.

But Murry drained another three to cut the Warrior advantage to only a single point with about 30 seconds left.

On the Warriors’ end of the court, the Titans blocked a shot and Del Norte was unable to get another shot up before recieving a shot clock penalty with five seconds left.

Kennedy quickly went down the court, took a shot and missed, to give Del Norte the one-point win.

Senior Cole Lesley had 15 points for the Warriors and made several big shots,  including scoring seven points in the final quarter, Alexander said.

Senior Taylor Duncan finished with 10 points. Scottie Skeen and Davidson both had six points and Kyle Higgerson had five points. Ben Vess, Chris Scott and Nick McBride each had two points.