Boys basketball team goes 0-2 at Yreka tourney

Lose one by a point, another by 33 points

The Del Norte High Warriors boys varsity basketball team started the year by dropping a one-point contest to Klamath Union of Oregon 38-37 Thursday night at a tournament in Yreka.

On Friday, Del Norte faced Anderson and lost in a blowout, 60-27.

In the Klamath Union game, the Pelicans let loose a barrage of three-pointers and quickly took a 12-2 lead by the middle of the first quarter.

Del Norte battled back and reduced the lead to 19-14 by the end of the half.

In the third quarter, while the defense kept Del Norte in the game, the offense mustered only  six points as the Warriors trailed 28-20 heading into the final quarter.

The Pelicans made a run to take a 34-22 advantage with more than 6 minutes remaining.

But the Warriors would not give up and slowly got the lead down to 38-35 with around a minute left on a three-pointer by Darrien Simpson.

With around 28 seconds left Del Norte missed a three-point shot, but Colby Japp grabbed the rebound and scored the basket to make it a one-point game. A 3-pointer at the buzzer fell short as Del Norte lost the opener. Simpson led Warrior scorers with nine points.

Head coach Blaine Lopez said that heading into the tournament,  they knew there could be some challenges on offense, which turned out to be the case. The positive, Lopez said, was that the defense played well enough to let them stick around until the end.

By losing, Del Norte had to play in the consolation bracket on Friday in a 10 a.m. start against the Anderson Cubs.

Del Norte struggled on both ends of the court as nothing seemed to go right in a sluggish contest as the the team found itself down 33-10 at the half. The second half was not much better as the Cubs ran away with the game by 33 points.

Japp led the team with eight points while Aaron Fitch chipped in seven points.

“We just played as poorly as we could have played,” Lopez said after the game. “We had a rough day.”

Lopez said the team must become more consistent, especially on offense, where they need to take good shots and make them. If not, Lopez said, then “it’s going to be a long year.”

 Del Norte concludes the tournament today with the 7th place game at noon. It can be heard live on the radio on 97.9 FM. and streaming from the KPOD website.

Starting next Friday, Del Norte travels a short distance to take part in a two-day tournament at Brookings-Harbor High.

The two-day event begins on Friday afternoon.