Inside play costly to Oracles
By Todd Swank

The Lady Oracles were no match for the 14-0 Northwestern Lady Tigers last week, who came away with the easy 76-40 win. It also was senior night for the host Tigers.

Last Thursday, Delphi hosted the Clinton Central Bulldogs. The Lady Bulldogs' post players dominated, scoring 29 points in enroute to a 67-36 victory over the Oracles.

Against Northwestern, the Tigers took three seconds to score the game's first basket. Twenty seconds later the lead was 6-0. Brianne Stauffer finally scored for Delphi at the 6:53 mark. After Northwestern took a 13-5 lead, Delphi got some momentum and closed the gap to 17-12 on an old-fashioned threepoint play by Kristina Barnard. It took over a minute for either team to score again. Two consecutive three pointers by Northwestern and suddenly the Oracles were nearly doubled on the scoreboard, 23-12. Stauffer scored again before the Tigers ended the first period with a pair of baskets. The score was 27-14. For a team that struggles to score 40 points a game, this was one of Delphi's highest scoring periods of the season.

Northwestern scored the first 13 points in the second quarter. Hannah Strasser finally made a bucket five minutes into the quarter to stop the drought at 40- 16. Kayla Yates got a basket for the Oracles, the only other score of the period. The halftime score read 48-18.

The third quarter was nearly a repeat of the second. Northwestern scored the first 11 points. Kylee German made a pair of free throws to end the streak. The Oracles were outscored 18-6 to make the score 66-24 after three.

Coach Mike McCroskey finally called off the dogs and let his bench play the rest of the game for Northwestern. Delphi scored 16 fourth quarter points with seven different players scoring.

Clinton Central came to Delphi with a 4-9 record and early on it looked like the Oracles might end their losing streak at nine as the Bulldogs were turning the ball over time after time.

After falling behind 7-2, the Oracles stormed back and took a 11-9 lead to start the game and finally end the period in a 11-11 tie. During the Delphi run they only committed two turnovers, but couldn't keep that up as they turned the ball over three times late in the quarter. Stauffer put Delphi in the lead 13-11 ten seconds into the second period. After Clinton Central tied it another Stauffer bucket gave the Oracles their last lead of the game, 15-13. At the 4:16 mark the Oracles were down by a 18- 16 score. The Bulldogs went on 10-3 scoring burst in the next two minutes to take a 28-19 lead. Emily Kayser hit a bucket and Erika Hawn hit a pair of free throws around a pair of scores for the Bulldogs to end the half, 32- 23. The Oracles had turned the ball over ten times in the period to let the lead slip away.

Neither team could score to open the second half until the Lady Bulldogs scored two quick baskets. Yates got on the scoreboard for Delphi two minutes into the period. The score stood at 36-25. Delphi stayed within 10-12 points, but could not close the gap. Time-after-time the Bulldogs' post players got the ball inside and scored from underneath the basket to keep the Bulldogs out in front. Any chance the Oracles had of winning disappeared in the third when they were outscored, 21-9, for a 53-32 score.

Baskets by Hawn and Stauffer were the only scores for Delphi in the final period as the Bulldogs stretched the lead out to 67-36.

The JV squad lost both games, too - 42-15 to Northwestern and 35-33 to Clinton Central.