Griffin improves to 3-0 in pre-season play
April 16, 2006 - World Basketball Association (WBA)
Cartersville Warriors News Release
The Griffin Warriors, in preparation for the upcoming season, competed in the Atlanta Basketball League's Ravia Latina National Tournament. The Warriors were utilizing the competition to fine tune the mechanics of their offensive and defensive strategies.
In the first round, the Warriors had a 38-24 lead at the half, before defensive pressure allowed for quick transition buckets enroute to a 100-53 route of ALBAC. Former Wyoming star Dion Sherrell, a 6'2" shooting guard, downed 16 points for the Warriors to pace a balanced offensive attack. Also, Dominique Holmes (6'6" PF - SPSU) and AJ Mastin (6'2" SG - Tenn. Chatt.) each had eight in the win.
Griffin got Chicago 79-39 in round two. Chicago was a small, but very quick and scrappy team who gave the Warriors a battle in the first half. Griffin held a 36-32 lead at the break, before again breaking down their opponent with a frenetic defensive stance in the second half. Delvin Thomas (6'9" PF - Bethune Cookman), paced the scoring for the Warriors with 14 points.
In the winner's bracket semi-finals, the Warriors had a war on their hands with Millonarios, before a late push propelled an 84-69 victory. The Warriors led the entire way, building double-digit leads on numerous occasions, only to see Millonarios battle back to trim the lead down. Terrence Hill fueled the Warrior offensive attack with 18 points, while Tony Scruggs (5'10 PG - Knoxville Coll.), collected eight.
The Warriors opted not to participate in the final day of the basketball festival. Head Coach David Archer said, "we were happy to get the opportunity to get on the court in a game type situation today. We were able to see some good things both offensively and defensively, while also determining the things we need to work on." He went on to say, "Since we have been together such a short period of time, we saw that we need to be more familiar with our sets. Since we were bigger than our opponents, they played a lot of zone, so we had to improvise a bit by putting new offensive sets. Then, we did see man-defense, we went away from our sets at times. But, all in all, the competition against other players was good for us. We had been getting a little complacent scrimmaging against ourselves."
The Warriors, who were sponsored by Baseline and the SEBL in the ABL Ravia event, are in the final stages of formulating its opening day roster. The Warriors will kick off the WBA season with two tough road games. On Friday evening, Griffin squares off against the Gainesville (Ga) Knight at Gainesville High School, then travel to Rome to take on the Gladiators, who are the defending champs.
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