Delphi falls short in home opener
By John J. Dunn Contributing sportswriter

After opening its season with three straight games on the road, the Delphi boys' basketball team finally returned to friendlier confines for its only game of the weekend. Friday night the Oracles squared off against a traditionally tough Hoosier Conference foe in Benton Central.

The Class 3A Bison (3-3) brought some impressive credentials into the contest, including a win over Harrison and a close five-point loss to McCutcheon in the J&C Hoops Classic played last weekend.

In another closely-played contest in which neither team ever led by more than eight points and despite leading for most of the first half, the Oracles again came up short in the fourth quarter in the 61-55 defeat.

Delphi jumped out to a 6-0 lead after the opening tip on a three-pointer and a foul shot from Michael Myers and a baseline jumper by Austin Hawn.

The Oracles extended the lead to a game-high eight points at 19-11 after a Hawn three-pointer early in the 2nd quarter, but each time they built a lead, BC would come back with several unanswered points to wipe it out.

The Bison scored eight straight to tie it back at 19, before Delphi rallied for its last six-point lead of the game at 27-21 following a Kory Banes baseline jumper with just over two minutes remaining in the half.

BC then scored the final seven points of the half to take its first lead at 28-27 into the intermission.

A Justin Snider trey gave the Oracles the lead again at 32-30 early in the 3rd quarter, a lead they would hang onto for most of the quarter until the Bison scored five unanswered points to go ahead 39-38 with 2:23 left.

Delphi's Dustin Oliver responded with a three-pointer, but BC scored the final three points of the quarter for a 42- 41 lead at the break.

Consecutive baskets from Hawn and a three-pointer from Banes, one of 10 treys from the Oracles in the contest, gave Delphi its final lead at 48-46 with 5:46 to play. But the final 8-0 Bison spurt, which included consecutive threes from Jordan Brier, gave BC its first six-point lead of the game at 54-48 with 3:30 remaining.

Even though BC converted on only 5-of-9 free throws down the stretch, Delphi could not get over the hump and would get no closer than three after Snider's jumper in the lane made it 55-52 with just 58.6 seconds left.

The Oracles missed a couple of opportunities at the end as BC held on for the final margin, but Coach Tonsoni saw some areas of concern that will become a focus in order to improve.

"Our shot selection may have cost us opportunities to increase our lead when we had chances to," Tonsoni said. "Defensively, our recognition in transition and on out-ofbounds plays cost us points."

"In order for us to get this fixed, we have to believe in each other and trust in each other much more than we are currently doing right now," he said.

Delphi (0-4) has now lost 16 games in-a-row against Benton Central since last defeating the Bison 78-62 during the 1988- 89 season and are only 3-35 against BC dating back to the 1968-69 season.

Myers led Delphi with 13 points, including 4-of-7 from beyond the arc, while Hawn added 12 and Snider 10.

Kyle Bender was again aggressive on the boards with a game-high 10 rebounds to go along with five points, while fellow front-liner Banes added nine boards and seven points.

Oliver finished with eight points and seven rebounds.

JV loses heartbreaker

Paul Zink's team-high 14 points and six rebounds were not enough to allow the Delphi JV (2-2) to overcome a 7-point deficit at the end of the 3rd quarter in its one-point loss to BC, 43-42.

Tanner Cripe and A.J. Erskin added seven points apiece, with Cripe sharing team-high board honors and adding teamhigh in assists with six each. Dustin Salyer finished with six points, while Kris Bender and Seferino Cervantes each had three and Tyler Smith two.

Delphi will host two games this weekend - Clinton Prairie on Friday night with the JV starting at 6:30 p.m. and Tri- County on Saturday with the JV tip-off at 6 p.m.