Warriors Struggle Through MAC Tourney

After the Leyton offense fired up in the second and third quarters to propel the Warriors to an easy 49-to-26 win over Minatare in the first round of the MAC Tournament on Jan. 20, the Warriors knew they would be facing a much tougher semi-final opponent in the Bayard Tigers. Leyton already lost to Bayard by 24 points in the beginning of the season, minimizing the importance of the teams' nearly identical records coming into the contest.

On Thursday the teams met at Bridgeport High School, and the Tigers immediately turned up the defensive pressure on the Warriors. Turnovers have plagued the Warriors all season, and in this game Leyton struggled from the beginning with keeping possession of the ball. Bayard's pressure and Leyton turnovers had the Tigers breaking out to a 14-to-6 lead at the end of the first period. The turnovers continued for Leyton as the half progressed, with Bayard continuing to pull away from the struggling Warriors. Bayard hit a three point shot at the halftime buzzer to go into the half leading 25-to-13.

Leyton needed to stop the turnovers and get aggressive under the boards, but Bayard continued to pressure and disrupt the Warrior offense. Leyton could not stop turning the ball over, and combined with very few second chance opportunities under the net, the Warriors were outscored 25-to-10 in the third period, putting the game out of reach. The Warriors fell by a final score of 64-to-28. Junior Zach Henke led the Warriors' scoring with 8 points in the loss.

After the tournament was over, Leyton Head Coach Chris Morgan was disappointed with the team's struggle with turnovers, saying," The excessive amount of turnovers by our team took us out of what should have been competitive match ups on both Thursday and Saturday. Essentially we became our opponent's MVP. Going forward we have to play better fundamental basketball."

The week's action moves the Warrior's season record to 6-and-8. Leyton travels on Friday to face off against the Minatare Indians.