In a season of great achievement for the Golden State Warriors organization, add this one to the list: Former Tokyo Apache assistant coach Casey Hill guided the Santa Cruz Warriors to the team's first-ever NBA Development League championship on Sunday.

The Warriors prevailed 109-96 over the Fort Wayne Mad Ants at Kaiser Permanente Arena to complete a two-game sweep.

"I can't tell you how happy I am to be bringing a championship to Santa Cruz," Hill, who led the team to a 35-15 regular-season mark, told the gathered media.

It was Santa Cruz's third straight trip to the D-League Finals, second under Hill, who's in his second season at the helm.

"Third time's a charm," Hill said. "That couldn't be more true right now."

Hill's father, Bob, was a longtime NBA coach and led the bj-league's Apache during the 2010-11 campaign. After the Apache folded in 2011, Casey Hill joined the D-League's Dakota Wizards as an assistant and stayed with the franchise when it moved to Santa Cruz and became the Warriors' D-League club for the 2012-13 season. A year later, he was promoted to head coach.

Earlier this month, Hill was named RidiculousUpside.com's D-League Coach of the Year.

The elder Hill praised his son's leadership this season.

"He did a great job all season long," Bob Hill wrote in an email to The Japan Times.

Learning from his father, who guided the New York Knicks, Indiana Pacers, San Antonio Spurs and Seattle SuperSonics before coming to Japan, and other mentors in the game prepared Hill for his own coaching career.

"Casey has been around basketball his entire life," Bob Hill added. "He has seen the good and the bad and knows how to deal with both. Casey is extremely organized and has never been afraid of work. His leadership qualities and instincts to coach were exposed daily this season.

"I'm extremely proud of him as you can imagine."