truebluefan

The Cartersville Warriors made a furious fourth-quarter rally Thursday night to knock off the Marietta Storm, 135-132, in World Basketball Association action in Marietta. Marietta led by 15 points with nine minutes remaining, but Cartersville (5-2) was able to chip away at the Storm's lead and win its third straight game since moving its base of operations from Griffin earlier this month.

The Warriors led 69-63 at the half, in what was turning into an offensive war between the two Eastern Conference teams. After keeping the lead intact for much of the third quarter. Leading 96-89 with 2:45 left in the third, the Warriors buckled under Marietta's sudden full court pressure, allowing the Storm to go on an astounding 17-0 frenzy to finish the quarter. Marietta took a stunning 104-96 lead into the fourth stanza. In the run, JaMario Moon drilled three consecutive treys and crammed home two electifying dunks. Early in the fourth Marietta increased it's lead to 15, before the Warriors began a steady climb back into the contest that saw them finally re-take the lead at 119-118.

"I have to admit that I was ready to give up when were down 15," said Cartersville coach David Archer Jr. "I looked at my assistant and asked how the heck this happened. However, we got a balanced attack and we used our bench a lot and I think that helped us get back into the game. "We had six guys in double figures and they had three guys who logged over 40 minutes, so I think maybe we wore their legs down a bit late in the game."

"We had a goal to make a statement by beating a good team and we did that tonight. We felt like we had a chance to win the first game with Marietta and tonight we were able to sneak back in and steal one."

Besides wearing Marietta down with the Warriors' depth, Archer said making free throws and pushing the ball up the court helped aid the comeback. "Their top guys scored a lot of points, but we were able to least force some misses at critical times and capitalize on them," said Archer. "If they did score, we inbounded the ball quickly to get up court to score again. We also were able to get to the free throw line and score points without time coming off the clock."

Mike Dean and Delvin Thomas combined to go 21-of-23 (91.3 percent) from the line to aid the Warriors' rally. Dean led the Warriors' offensive attack, scoring 30 points, handing out seven assists and nabbing three steals. Thomas had 27 and four steals, Bobby Brown netted 19 and Ron Dokes had a double-double for Cartersville, scoring 14 and pulling down 10 rebounds. Leroy Davis, who joined the Warriors after being released by Marietta last week, chipped in 14, Antoine Broxsie tossed in 13 and Rey Luque finished with nine points and 10 big rebounds for Cartersville. Luque, who re-entered the game for the final four minutes, helped the drive back into the game with two enormous steals and an offensive rebound in the waning seconds.

Daryl Dorsey chalked up a double-double with 36 points and 10 assists, while Jamario Moon had 34 points, 11 rebounds and seven steals for Marietta. Sylvester Morgan turned in a huge performance with 25 points, 7 rebounds and three blocks. Steve Ozier also came off the bench to contribute 11 points, three rebounds and two steals.

Cartersville travels to Tuscaloosa, Ala., tonight to face the Druid City Dragons in another road contest. Tipoff for the game is set for 8 p.m. The Warriors' next home game will be May 20 against the Cleveland (Tenn.) Majic at Cass High School. That game will get started at 7 p.m.