The San Quentin Warriors fought a hard battle from beginning to the end but they could not overcome the visiting Imago Dei basketball team’s fluid ball movement. There were a lot of exciting plays, blocks, dunks and crossovers, but when it was over, Imago Dei escaped with a 74-72 victory.

Imago Dei started out strong. During the first quarter, Teohn Conner stole the ball, drove coast to coast and finished at the rack for a layup. Mike Kehrig, who ran point guard for Imago Dei, surprised the crowd with shifty moves, creating space to knock down shots. He also had two clutch three pointers in crunch time to seal the deal. Kehrig finished with 18 points, 10 assists and 5 rebounds.

“This is one big brotherhood. We love coming in to support each other and be there for one another,” said Kehrig.

With four seconds left in the second quarter, Teohn Conner stole the ball, drove into traffic and finished with contact to get the foul and the bucket at the buzzer, which left Imago Dei up 43-28 at halftime.

“It’s a blessing to be back here. These guys seem to wake my competitive spirit,” said Conner.

Conner led his team with 27 points, 5 rebounds, 9 steals and 2 assists.

During the second half the Warriors D’Romeo Allen and Tevin Fournette’s high-intensity defense seemed to snap the team out of its funk, leading a 10-2 run to cut the lead to single digits.

Harry “ATL” Smith’s monstrous 6’5” frame seemed to take things into his own hands. From the top of the key, Smith drove to the basket and missed the first attempt. He grabbed his own rebound and got one bucket to bring the Warriors down by two. He dropped 31 points with eight rebounds.

With Conner in foul trouble, Imago Dei Ervin Anderson picked up the defensive slack by blocking shots and grabbing rebounds. He had a total of seven blocks and nine rebounds.

With 2:34 seconds left in the fourth quarter Conner drove left and the Warriors rotated, leaving Kehrig open in the corner from where he knocked down a clutch three pointer, that put Imago Dei up by five.

Once again, the Warriors put the ball into Smith’s hands and backed down his defender for a turn around hook shot.

“We played extremely hard, and we were up against a very good team, but missed a lot of good opportunities and we need to build more chemistry,” said Smith.

With four seconds left on the clock, Imago Dei intercepted a cross-court pass to seal the May 27 win, 74-72.

Many fans agreed that had the Warriors started with their high-pressure defense, they would have won the game.