Warriors don't Park: Storm past Buccaneers

Speed and pressure were the name of the game for the Nelson Warriors who opened up their Friday night matchup against Park University fast and strong, jumping out to a 7-0 lead just 90 seconds after the jump then cruising to a 111-65 wire-to-wire victory. Up 38 points at half, the Warriors withstood an early second have run before their offense kicked back into gear, never taking their foot off the pedal against their cross-town rivals.

To say that Harley Upton was on his game in the first half may be a bit of an understatement. Upton capped off an impressive first 20 minutes with 8-9 shooting including 4-4 from beyond the arc to lead all scorers with 26 points, when he dropped in a short tear-drop bucket off a full-court pass at the halftime buzzer, sending the capacity crowd into a frenzy and teammates streaming onto the court in celebration.

Finishing with 30 points, 3 rebounds, and 4 steals, Upton sung his team's praises and focus on this game, while also keeping their eyes on a long-term aim. "Everyone has character on this team. High tempo is how we play. We want to score as much as we can. Our goal is to lead the nation in scoring so every night we are going to open with the same energy especially on the fast break."

The Warriors pestered and frustrated the Buccaneers on defense all game, forcing them into 19 first half turnovers to their own 5, each finishing with 29 and 9, respectively, ball-control remaining a key aspect of head coach Scott Mossman's overall strategy.

Park put up a bit more fight in the second half than the first, using an 8-0 run to open scoring and eventually cutting the Warriors' lead down to just 28 points ten minutes in. Despite this, Nelson never broke, refusing to let the lead drop any further, eventually growing it to a game-high 48 on two Calvin Windley free throws following back-to-back Elliot Offner corner-3's and a Michael DeHorney dunk for 10-0 run in the final two minutes. "We have a lot to work on," said Mossman. "We have plenty about our system that needs to be improved if we want to get to where we want to go. But we give all the credit to Park for fighting as hard as they did in the second half and giving us the challenge that we wanted, using it to grow ourselves. We learned a lot about who we are today and who we want to be in the future."

DeHorney's final dunk gave him 22 points on 10-15 shooting to go along with 9 rebounds and a block, while Rob Jenkins finished with a very well-rounded stat line of 18 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, and 4 steals. Zaveion Bineyard had a strong 15 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals.

Caleb Geisendorfer led Park University with 18 points and 9 rebounds.

Next up for the Warriors is at Northern Arizona University on November 8 at 6 p.m.