Warriors Win Opener, Host Tournament This Weekend!

Hi Warrior fans! Well the Warriors were able to come out on top Monday night as they took care of the UW Stout Blue Devils 83-66. The game was a sloppy one on both sides of the ball as the two teams combine for a total 39 turnovers during the game. While the pace of the game was uptempo the Warriors must do a much better job taking care of the ball going forward or it could doom them on many nights.

A couple of highlights from the game against Stout for the Warriors first had to be the shooting percentage from the field. The Warriors shot the ball at a clip of 30-59 (50%) for the game along with hitting 9-23 (40%) from the 3 point line. The Warriors at times were able to have great spacing on the floor which created good driving and passing lanes. This lead to many open shots that the Warriors were able to knock down. Another area were the 19 assists on the 30 converted field goals on the game. When a team is able to get almost 66% of the made field goals from assists that shows the team was sharing the ball and finding open people during the game. It is good to see the Warriors sharing the ball and making the extra pass to find the open man. A final positive area was the free throw shooting where the Warriors went 14-16 (88%). As any basketball person knows free throws are a key to any victory and the Warriors were able to convert free throws in this ball game at a high percentage.

Some areas where the Warriors need to continue to work on are areas that were listed to the keys of the game. First the Warriors must talk much better on both ends of the floor. Not talking once again gave Stout many open looks from the 3 point line and under the basket for easy lay-ups. The second area was again rebounding, even though the Warriors won the battle on the boards they cannot give a team 13 offensive rebounds a night and expect to win many games. The final area the Warriors struggled in was taking care of the basketball, as stated earlier the Warriors had way to many turnovers during the contest and many of them were turnovers that should not have happened. Too many times on outlet passes the Warriors were not reading the defense and making passes right to UW Stout. On other occasions they would not sweep through being aggressive taking care of the ball and tips occurred which ended up with a steal for Stout. We must value each possession that we get during a game, taking care of the ball has always been an area of success of the past couple of seasons for the Warriors so we must do a much better job in this area as we move forward.

Looking ahead for the Warriors they are hosting the Merchants Tip-off Classic this weekend. Teams included in the tournament are Clarke College (Iowa), Cardinal Stritch (Wisconsin) and Palm Beach Atlantic (Florida). All three teams are quality programs and should bring in some good talent for Warrior fans to watch. Game will start Friday at 5 pm when Cardinal Stritch and Palm Beach Atlantic take the floor. The Warriors and Clarke College follow at 7 pm. Hope to see you all there this weekend for the games!! GO WARRIORS!