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DOUGLAS - It was touch and go for the Worland Warriors during their 3A East boys basketball regional quarterfinal matchup against Torrington Thursday morning at Douglas. But when the final buzzer sounded the Warriors came out on top vs. the Trailblazers as they won 50-47 to advance to the semifinal round.

"It was a game of runs and we made our run at the right time. We had some opportunities in the third quarter to break it open and couldn't do it. We missed some layups and free throws that let Torrington keep it close," said WHS boys basketball coach Aaron Abel.

Starting the game the Warriors jumped out to a 7-0 lead after a 3-pointer by senior guard Jadon Swalstad, but as Abel said, it was a game of runs and Torrington did not stay down for long.

The two teams kept trading punches but early in the fourth quarter, the Trailblazers took a 37-33 lead. Things looked to be getting out of hand for the Warriors but junior guard Rylan Mocko got a steal and went the other way for an easy two to cut the Torrington lead to 37-35.

With Torrington beginning to pull away again, sophomore Luke Mortimer came up with an old fashion 3-point play to make it a one-possession game for Worland at 41-38. The Warriors then threw on their press, forced a turnover and Swalstad made an easy inside shot to pull them within one.

But Torrington scored the game's next four points to take a 45-40 lead with 2:20 remaining in the game. Even with a five-point deficit the Warriors kept grinding, showing their resolve was not going to be pushed aside.

Worland forced Torrington into three consecutive turnovers, first Mocko got another steal and took it back for two, then Mortimer did the same and with 1:04 left on the clock Torrington threw the ball out of bounds.

After a Torrington timeout, the Warriors ran a set play for the team's leading scorer, Mortimer. The sophomore came up big for his team by getting the bucket for an easy two and gave them the lead at 46-45. However, the Trailblazers retook the lead with 25.2 seconds left, at 47-46.

After running through their offense, Warrior freshman Rudy Sanford, who earned his first career start, got the ball at the top of the 3-point line, froze his defender with a pump fake, drove left into the lane and finished strong at the basket, giving Worland a 48-47 lead with 13.5 seconds remaining.

A traveling violation on Torrington's next possession gave the ball right back to Worland and Sanford knocked down two free throws that gave the Warriors their 50-47 victory.

"Our guys did a good job of not quitting and keeping cooler heads. I told the guys afterward that cooler heads prevailed in the game, I thought they [Torrington] panicked a bit and we did a good job of maintaining our composure. With about 2:30 to go we changed our press, we had been a soft pressure the whole game but went into our diamond [press]. It worked out and they weren't ready for it.

"Guys refused to quit, amped it up and made plays on the defensive and offensive end," said Abel about his team's effort in the fourth quarter. "We ran set plays for Luke and early in the game, he missed on some of those easy shots. Then we ran it with about 45 seconds to go and he got to the rim and finished for us."

Added Abel, "After they scored we did a good job of going back down and attacking. Rudy did a great job of attacking with strength and not worrying about the contact and finishing inside. I was proud of the guys, Rudy and Luke being able to finish and mature beyond their year, then Rylan and everyone defensively working hard to get those critical stops.

"Torrington threw a lot of new stuff at us, but our guys did a nice job of adapting on the fly. It was a great game and we're happy we finished out on top. I think it's going to be the typical game you see during this tournament, you have a lot of evenly matched teams and they've done a good job scouting one another."

Leading up to the week Abel talked with his team about getting easy points whether that be off inbounds sets or putbacks off offensive rebounds. Junior Andrew Edholm took the message to heart as he cleaned the glass all game giving his team extra possessions in doing so.

"I thought Andrew just played his absolute tail off. I was really proud of his effort. At halftime, I asked everyone how their legs were and everyone said they were fine except for Andrew. He said he was a little tired and he should have been as hard as he was playing. Every one of our guys played hard, we told them there were going to be negative things that happened in the game but it's all about getting consecutive stops. And that's what the game came down to, we made defense our priority and the guys got the stops that mattered," said Abel.

The Warriors take on the No. 1-ranked, and seeded, Buffalo Bison in the semifinals. The Bison swept the regular season matchup against the Warriors, winning 67-36 on Jan. 26 and 54-42 on Feb. 15.

Taking care of the basketball will be the focal point for the Warriors, in both losses to Buffalo they have had 20-plus turnovers. Abel will also tinker with his starting lineup to prepare for the extra pressure the Bison will surely bring.

"We have to take care of the ball, we've played them twice and have turned the ball over 27 times in both games. Our lineups are going to change, McCoy Molzahn didn't get a lot of time today [Thursday] and he'll be put back into the starting lineup against Buffalo. McCoy did a great job of handling that, that was the first time he came off the bench all season. As a senior, he was mature and handled it well. Now we're going to ask him to start again and handle the ball and cover all 90 feet of the floor," said Abel.

As Abel stated before, defense will determine who moves on and whose season ends this weekend. In order to get his players to buy in even more, Abel and his staff have put some of the scouting responsibilities on the team.

"Watching the Buffalo/Wheatland [quarterfinal] game we'll get some feedback from the kids and see what they want to do. In scouting this week we tried putting more in their hands, more on their plate and giving them assignments to carry out on their own. I want it to be their team. I don't want to be me dictating what we have to do, I want them to take this thing over and I think if they have that level of ownership that the coaches have, I think we'll have a lot of success," said Abel.

The Warriors tipoff against the Bison at 4:30 p.m. today.