WAKE UP WARRIORS!!!!

The Warriors split the two games this weekend but their performance was nothing to hang their hats on. The entire weekend the Warriors played as if they were in a trance. The first game against Ft. Lee the Warriors were down by 17 points within the first five minutes of the game. In the second game against McGuire Air Force Base the Warriors were also down by 15 points within the first five minutes of the game. The drive of the Warriors comes and goes; you really do not know what type of play this team will bring from game to game. One minute the Warriors are considered the best team in the WAMAC and then the next the Warriors are the most dysfunctional bunch of individuals to walk into the gym. Every player on this team will need to reevaluate its role and basically GET WITH THE PROGRAM!

Now back to the game, Ft. Lee dominated the Warriors in every statistical category except the final score. The only bright spot to the Warriors game was by the bench play of Sean Clemmons, Peter Cudjoe and Joel Riley. The Warriors were without their starting shooting guard Brian Hill, but Lance Boulware did an excellent job filling in for him. Michael Smith kept the Warriors within striking distance in the first half by scoring 16 of his game high 22 points.

At the start of the second half the Warriors were down by seven points and needed to play better defense to grab control of this game. During a critical stretch in the second half Sean Clemmons and Peter Cudjoe scored ten straight points collectively giving the Warriors the lead for the first time! Lance Boulware added 14 points of his own and hit two big three pointers and it seemed as if the Warriors would extend the lead and dominate the game from this point on. But Ft. Lee did not fold and they went back inside and tied the game with ten seconds left. Coach Banks called a time out and the play was set, a back door lob to Bobby Driver. Quantarius Burns got the ball and saw that the play wasn’t there and took a shot and missed with 1.1 seconds left on the clock. After a turnover by Ft. Lee the Warriors got the ball underneath the basket and Andre Hall got the ball to Michael Smith who was fouled in the act of shooting the ball with 0.1 seconds left on the clock. At the free throw line Smith missed the first one but nailed the second one winning the game for the Warriors 69-68 in a nail biter! Bobby Driver and Andre Hall also chipped in with 14 and 10 points respectively.

After the game the Ft. Lee players questioned the decision making of the referees for calling a foul in crunch time in a game of this magnitude. Even some of the Warriors would say that the last foul should not have been called in that situation. Coach Banks told his players that the officiating had nothing to do with the outcome of this game because both teams made careless mistakes down the stretch and the win could have went either way and we should just be grateful that we got the call on the last play. Coach Banks was just glad that his team came out victorious even though this was one of the worst performances his team has played this year.

On Sunday the Warriors traveled to New Jersey to face McGuire Air Force Base. To sum this game up the Warriors continued to play horrendous basketball. McGuire got an early lead and never looked back. The Warriors big man Andre Hall got tossed and with the double digit turnovers, the Warriors could not get back into the game and tasted yet another defeat. The Warriors will need to put aside all the egos and just play basketball or face another disappointing season. Andre Hall summed it up best by saying, “If we don’t play defense and start hustling on every play we will never when a championship because offensive wins games and DEFENSE wins CHAMPIONSHIPS!”

This weekend Ft. Lee will get another chance to redeem themselves against the Warriors on their home court on Saturday at 1pm. Then on Sunday the Warriors will be back home to face Quantico at 1pm. Hopefully the Warriors will be able to work out some of their shortcomings and get back to playing inspired basketball!