


Guard Yuri Collins and two-way guard Taran Armstrong recorded double-doubles, and the Santa Cruz Warriors pulled away from the host Texas Legends 131-116 to secure their sixth straight NBA G League win Thursday.
Collins scored nine points in the fourth quarter and finished 15 points and 10 assists, and Armstrong came off the bench and had 15 points, 12 assists, and six rebounds in front of 5,261 fans gathered at the Comerica Center.
The Warriors (18-12) hold sole possession of fourth place in the Western Conference standings — 1.5 games behind tri-leaders Austin (19-10), Stockton (20-11) and Salt Lake City (20-11) — with four games left in the regular season. The top six teams secure postseason berths.
Santa Cruz has been unstoppable since it beat Mexico City (13-16) in its annual Chase Center game in San Francisco on March 9. The Warriors’ last five wins have come on the road making them the league best road team. They have a 12-3 record away from Kaiser Permanente Arena.
They have two road games remaining on their seven-game road trip and faces the host South Bay Lakers (13-16) at UCLA Health Training Center in El Segundo on Monday and Tuesday at 7 p.m.
In their latest win, all eight players who scored finished with double digits in points.
Two-way forward Jackson Rowe led the way with a team-high 29 points, to go along with nine rebounds, eight assists, and five steals.
Forward Blake Hinson had 18 points and eight rebounds, Two-way forward Braxton Key had 15 points, six rebounds, and three assists, and forward Javan Johnson scored 13 points.
Reserve guard Marcus Burk scored 16 points, and guard Alex Gil-Fernandez, a 2016 graduate of Henry M. Gunn High in Palo Alto, came off the bench and contributed 10 points.
The Warriors shot 51% (50 of 98) from the field and 53.1% from beyond the arc. Hinson and Burk each made four 3-pointers and the Warriors finished with 17 on 32 attempts.
They also totaled 34 assists against just 13 turnovers.
Santa Cruz led 68-67 at the half, but earned some breathing room after it outscored the Legends 34-25 in the third quarter.
The Legends trimmed their deficit to one point, 113-112, with 5:28 remaining after Zhaire Smith converted Jazian Gortman’s pass for an alley-oop layup.
But Collins made a pair of field goals to spark a 13-0 run and the Warriors carried a double-digit lead into the home stretch. Collins made a 3-pointer in the final minute to cap scoring for Santa Cruz.
Smith scored a game-high 30 points for the Legends (8-21). Gortman had 21 points and 10 assists.
Teafale Lenard, Jr. also scored 19 points for Texas. Reserve Dakota Rivers had 15 points and eight rebounds. Garrett Denbow scored 10 points, and center Max Fiedler had eight points and nine rebounds.