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BUFFALO -With starting junior guard Jadon Swalstad nursing an injury, reserve guard Elijah Leyva got the start in the Worland Warriors 3A East quarterfinals game vs. the Newcastle Dogies Thursday night at Buffalo High School.

Leyva, a sophomore, did not let his first career start go to waste as he scored a team high 20 points and was lights out from beyond the arc with six made 3-pointers, helping his team to a quarterfinal victory.

"I thought Elijah did a great job of responding, at least on the offensive end. I was happy for him to have such a good performance as a sophomore in a regional tournament game. He's a kid that has ice in his veins and has a lot of confidence. He's not afraid to pull the trigger and some of the shots at the end of the fourth quarter were giving me heart issues, when he was pulling the trigger with a 15-point lead in the fourth quarter," said WHS boys coach Aaron Abel. "That's something you have to live with a little bit because you want him to have the confidence to shoot the ball but he has to learn time and situation, but that will come with age."

The Warriors went on to win 77-58 in a game that the scoreboard does not properly reflect how tough Newcastle was for Worland.

The undersized Dogies limited senior big man Cody Baumstarck, who had a double-double on the night with 11 points and 11 rebounds, forcing other Warriors to step up fill the scoring void.

"(Newcastle) did a really good job of helping in the post and their man-to-man was as good as any we've seen all year. I think Newcastle is really good defensively and they did a great job of eliminating Cody (Baumstarck) for a second straight night," said Abel. "Isaias (Terrazas) was another guy that stepped up and knocked down some shots. I also thought they had trouble keeping Clay (Bullard) and Stone (Ramos) in front of them when they attacked."

While Abel liked what he saw from his team on the offensive end, the defense was not to the Warriors typical defensive play.

"There were some good things on the offensive end but the defensive end was really bad for us tonight. That wasn't something I was expecting and actually thought it would be inverse. I was disappointed in that respect. Our closeouts were weak and they would run a dribble weave and we would help on the on-ball defender and we weren't recovering with any kind of aggressiveness," said Abel.

Some of the teams' shortfalls on defense were due to Swalstad's absence, who is one of the Warriors premier defenders.

"It was big not to have Jadon out there tonight. We are better offensively with Elijah (Leyva) out there but defensively we're better with Jadon (Swalstad) on the floor. That was disappointing and we had a few silly turnovers that gave them easy points," said Abel.

The Warriors play the winner of the Torrington and Buffalo game (final score unavailable at press time) and Abel is looking for a better defensive showing in the semifinals.

"We have to fight through screens with more urgency and we have to rebound and get after 50/50 balls. We have to make sure we're the ones leaving skin on the floor and not the other team," said Abel.

The Warriors semifinal game vs. Buffalo/Torrington will be at 7:30 p.m. today.