Recap
The Warriors hopes for getting off to a fast start this season were dealt a devastating blow, with a 75-42 opening game loss to Toyota of Clifton Park.
Turnovers proved extremely costly and led to a lopsided differential in fast break points. Sloppy ball handling, telegraphed passes and the inability to get back on defense quickly made the margin to large to handle.
Early on the Warriors looked good, grabbing the lead in the games opening minutes. Jason Norton drained a couple of treys in the early going to help kick start the Warrior offense. However, with the score tied at 13-13, Toyota erupted for a 19-0 spurt, leading the Warriors 32-16 at halftime. The Warriors never threatened from that point on.
| WARRIORS | 16 | 26 | - | 42 |
| Toyota (CP) | 32 | 43 | - | 75 |
Player Quotes
- Paul Todd
- On why the Warriors lost
“We were out husseled[sic] at both ends of the floor. We turned the ball over 90 times and gave up a lot of fast break points. They also had 4 to 5 extra chances on every shot because we failed to rebound the ball. Defense, protecting the basketball and getting open looks. On offense we need to move the ball better…. Toyota was very good at moving the ball and finding the open man… they must have averaged 4 to 5 passes minimum before taking a shot. We were around 1 to 2 passes.
I know this was the first time many of us have played together.. so I know it will get better. I see a lot of talent on this team.”
- Jay Norton
- On why the Warriors lost
“Hustle is what killed us more than anything. Im guilty of that myself as by 10 minutes in i felt like i had nothing left in the tank.”
“We werent sticking with our guys in man. I think we have to try at the beginning of the game to match up better with our strengths.”
“We need to switch and call out the picks that are set on us. Screens under the basket need to be used more and i did notice that a bunch of us werent[sic] seeing the open guys under the basket on a few occasions. We stood around alot[sic] on offense watching the guy dribbling the ball instead of moving around to get open. We cant run to the guy with the ball alot[sic] of times there would be three gold jerseys bunched up on one side of the floor whereas they were great at spreading it out. We can do much better im[sic] sure of that.”
- Dan Todd
- On the Warriors defense
“There seemed to be a lot of confusion about who was guarding who. That lead to a lot of open looks on the perimeter and way too many right underneath the basket for easy layups. Can I suggest a zone defense to fix that problem? 2 guys underneath and 3 guys around the perimeter (or some variation of that). If not, then we need to better communicate who we’re guarding when a sub comes in. My general rule on defense is that if there’s more than an arms-length between me and the guy I’m guarding, there’s too much space for him to work.”
- Justin Lajeunesse
- On the thought of utilizing a zone defense
“(Zone) couldn’t be nearly as bad as last night giving up points. The thing now is that since we were all nearly drained of energy for the majority of the game a zone would be easier for us to spread and cover until we find ourselves in better shape. Man cover is not the way to go until we can run the floor the entire game. I think that would take the focus off of the ball more and allow us to cover the board more effectively at least giving us a chance to get our composure as a team that has not really played together.”
- Mike Pacella
- On the large margin of defeat
“If we communicated better, weren’t quite as rusty…that’s at least a 15-20 point turnaround right there”
- On the 19-0 run
“It felt like the entire team hung its’ collective head and felt sorry for itself when we fell behind by 10 points. We get in a spot like that again, we need to call timeout regroup and get our heads out of our asses. Not using either of our 2 first half timeouts while watching the other team score 20 straight, won’t happen again.”
