After exiting in the first round of last year’s KCAA state tournament, the Heritage Christian Warriors had a statement to make Friday evening. The third-seed Warriors opened up an anticipated tournament run against the sixth-seed Cornerstone Bulldogs.
’Twas the Bulldogs who threw the first punch, jumping out to a 7-2 lead early on. However, the Warriors weren’t going down so easy.
Heritage Christian rallied back to take a 14-9 lead after the first quarter, fueled by five points from senior Josh Jones.
The second quarter solely belonged to senior forward Dalton Folz, who scored eight points in the period alone to aid a 26-20 Warriors lead at the half.
Coming out of the break, Heritage Christian sustained an even larger lead by winning the third period 13-8. Leading 39-28 into the fourth quarter, the Warriors could smell victory.
Behind nine second half points each from Folz and Rajah Mills, the Warriors held their ground to advance past Cornerstone, 55-42.
Folz finished with a double-double of 19 points and 12 rebounds. Mills added 15 points and Jones finished with nine.
Sam Osborne scored a game-high 20 points for Cornerstone.
The Warriors will face seventh-seed Oak Ridge Saturday afternoon at 1:30 P.M. EDT.