Warriors take down Wildcats at home 46-37

Squad improves to 3-1 for the year  

Despite some rough spots the Warriors put things together in the fourth quarter to earn a 46-37 victory over Ferndale on Tuesday night.

In the first half the squad struggled to find a flow, missing numerous open shots and not playing stout defense.

Despite this Del Norte was still very much in the ballgame with the score at 18-18 at the end of the first half in the team’s first home game of the year.

“They just outhustled us,”  Warrior head coach Buzz McCulloch said about the first half. “We kept letting them dribble right to the hole.”

In the second half things remained close with the Warriors able to take a 31-28 lead after three quarters.

In the fourth quarter the Wildcats came out and quickly knotted things up at 31-31 and took the lead at 34-32 a short time later as it appeared the Warriors might let the contest slip away.

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A key play occurred when senior point guard Katy Suzuki stole the ball and threw it to an open Kristyn Rook down the court who made the shot to give the Warriors a 41-37 advantage.

With a little more than 30 seconds left Rook drained a three-pointer to seal the victory  by giving Del Norte a nine point advantage.

After losing its first game of the year in overtime on Thursday at a tournament in Yreka, Tuesday’s victory gave Del Norte its third straight win of the year.

McCulloch said the key was that his team started to do a better job pressing the Wildcats and getting turnovers in the final quarter.

“It created points for us,” he said about the turnovers. “We started to play tougher defense.”

Senior Lauryn Lesina led Warrior scorers with 12 points. Suzuki finished with seven points while Lexie Nelson, Ariana Spalding and Rook each had six points.

McCulloch commended Nels­on and Suzuki for stepping up their game on both ends of the  court and being key contributors.

The Warriors next play at a  three-day tournament in Mount Shasta starting on Thursday.

At 5 p.m. Thursday the Warriors will face Mount Shasta, whom they downed by 25 points on Friday.

Junior Varsity

In the junior varsity game Del Norte downed Ferndale 34-26 to improve to 3-1 for the season.

Brittany Maready and Shauna Ratnour each had 10 points each for the Warriors.

JV head coach Blaine Lopez commended his team for playing good defense but said his squad needs to improve on offense,

“Our goal is to get better everyday,” he said.