Warriors tame the Bruins

Earn 36-31 win to improve to 3-3

Senior Darian Simpson of the Del Norte High boys varsity basketball team goes up for a shot surrounded by Brookings defenders Thursday night at the 2011 Del Norte Warrior Classic. Wescom News Service/Jef Hatch

At the 2011 Del Norte Warrior Classic the Warriors won a 36-31 defensive battle against Brookings-Harbor on Thursday night.

With the win the Warriors improved to 3-3 for the season.

“I thought that defensively it was a big improvement,” head coach Blaine Lopez said. To him, it was by far their best performance of the year. “It was good to see.”

Lopez has expressed frustration  that his  squad was not putting things together on defense, a staple of previous Warrior squads, and were not playing with the needed fire and drive for the entire game. With such a young, inexperienced team it’s vital for them to play well on defense as the offensive game tries to get in gear. Lopez empathized the squad must continue to take positive “baby steps” as the season goes on if they want to be competitive in a tough Big 5 Conference this season.

While Del Norte still struggled to contestantly hit shots, the defense did a good job stopping the Bruins’ attack to help win the game, Lopez said.

Del Norte returns only three players and zero starters from last year’s team, which earned a co-share of the Big 5 Conference title with Arcata, who are the favorites to win the Big 5 this year.

Senior Darian Simpson led Del Norte with 15 points and 11 rebounds while fellow senior Colby Japp had five points and 14 rebounds. Sophomore Aaron Fitch also had five points for Del Norte.

The Warriors struggled mightily on offense in the first quarter.

While the defense allowed the Bruins to score only seven points the Warriors watched as shot after shot bounced off the rim or out of bounds as they scored zero points for the quarter.

“They came after us,” Lopez said, as the Bruins did a good job pressing them. “It took us time to get going.”

In the second quarter, the squad started to show signs of life in front of a good-sized crowd of Warriors fans anxious to see how the new-look team would fare.

With 6:29 left in the second quarter Simpson found an open look from downtown and converted a 3-pointer to get the Warriors on the board.

With 2:11 left, Simpson took it in for a score on a layup to knot things up at 12-12. But the Bruins held tough and took an 18-12 advantage into the half.

In the third quarter, Del Norte came out and quickly reduced the Brookings lead to 18-17.

Throughout the quarter the Warriors started to chip away at the Bruins lead as they put preassure on them, not giving them a lot of good looks on offense.

Brookings was able to maintain the lead   until Fitch put the ball in for a layup with 1:45 left to give the Warriors a 26-25 advantage. At the end of the third quarter Del Norte had the lead at 28-25.

In the fourth quarter, Del Norte scored only eight points. But the Warriors defense continued to create turnovers and miscues on the Bruins’ part as Brookings scored only six points in the final period.

As the buzzer sounded to end the game the crowd gave a warm round of applause to the home team and the gritty, defense- oriented performance. It was obvious as they left the court that the win certainly gave them a needed shot of confidence.

With a team made up of mainly sophomores and juniors, Lopez said it will take time for his youthful team to find their groove. “We’ve got to keep improving each day,” he said.

Del Norte did not play in the tournament on Friday. Today they will face Little 4 opponent Hoopa at 4 p.m.