Oracles nip Hornets in final seconds
Myers saves best for last
By John J. Dunn Contributing sportswriter

Two for Banes Oracle Kory Banes drives for the basket in first quarter action against Rossville Saturday night. Trailing with just seconds to play, the Oracles pulled out a two-point win over the Hornets, 64-62. Bill Stauffer photo

Michael Myers' steal of an in-bounds pass and three-point play the old-fashioned way with just 13 seconds to play helped the Oracles pull-out a thrilling 64-62 victory at Rossville Saturday night.

Trailing 62-59 with 16 seconds remaining, Myers hit a short driving baseline jumper to pull Delphi to within one at 62-61 when head coach Brian Tonsoni called a timeout to set up the defense for the inbound play.

The Oracles' tenacious pressure forced a pass deep into the five-second count that Myers was able to intercept and with two quick dribbles and a burst to the basket, he converted the lay-up and was fouled, putting him at the free throw line with the chance to put his team ahead by two.

Myers converted the and-one and Delphi was able to apply enough defensive pressure to force Rossville into two desperation shots at the buzzer to hold onto the victory.

"I am just ecstatic and so proud of the way we responded tonight in a tough environment and coming off of our game against Northwestern," Tonsoni said. "Our kids were resilient all night long, but especially when we got down late in the game, we were able to concentrate and execute our end-of-game situations flawlessly."

"I was really proud of our preparation for the game as well, but most of all I want to thank all of our fans and especially the students for making the trip and for helping to provide us with some muchneeded energy." he said. "It means a lot to the kids and that support is what is needed to help the program to be successful."

It was another game which saw the Oracles with offensive scoring balance and a high field goal percentage at .590 percent from the field (23-of- 39), and .703 percent (19-of- 27) from inside the three-point arc.

But Myers was the story-line of the 2nd half after going scoreless during the 1st half, he was able to burst out with a game-high 19 points, including the first and last four points of the 3rd period and the last five of the game.

"It was a total team effort," Tonsoni said, "but we had two monster efforts from Myers and Kyle Bender."

"Michael took on the challenge and made some big plays for us at crunch time, and Bender was just as important leading us with 13 rebounds," he said. "But everyone contributed and that is what we are going to need in order for us to continue to enjoy some success this season."

Delphi, which has now won three-of-its-last four games, led 31-30 at halftime thanks in part to a 12-point half from Austin Hawn, who made three treys in the half, which featured five ties and 11 lead changes and saw the score knotted at 13 apiece at the end of a closelyplayed 1st quarter.

The Oracles (3-6) led for the entire 3rd quarter and took their biggest lead of the game of seven points at 45-38 on a Myers jumper with 1:26 to play in the quarter.

But a 14-6 Hornet run from that point found Rossville, which entered the game with a four-game winning streak and had won five-of-its-last six, with its first lead of the 2nd half at 52-51 with 5:14 remaining in the game.

Rossville (5-4) would extend its late-game lead to as many as four points at 57-53 before another Hawn three-pointer would narrow the gap to one with 3:11 to play.

Delphi again was clutch down the stretch from the free throw line hitting four-of-six in the final two minutes to help set up the last-second heroics and also out rebounded the Hornets 33-22.

Kory Banes had perhaps his best game of the season with aggressive drives to the baskets leading to a season-high-tying 12 points and seven rebounds, while Hawn finished with a season-high of 15 points.

In addition to his game-high board effort, Bender added seven points to go along with Dustin Oliver's seven, while Matt Lewis and Justin Snider finished with two points apiece.

The Hornets placed four in double-figures led by Kendall Sadler with 16 points, followed by Jordan Delks' 15, Aaron Martin's 13 and Brian Evans'11.

Friday night at Northwestern

Most analysts probably expected a mismatch Friday night as Delphi traveled to Northwestern to take on the Class 2A defending State Champions, now ranked #1 in the Class 3A poll. The Tigers entered the game with a perfect 6-0 record and have won 21 straight games dating to last season.

Playing probably their toughest opponent on the schedule, the Oracles got to see first-hand how good of a team coach Jim Gish has as Northwestern took control of the game from the onset, taking a 23-6 lead at the end of the 1st quarter, extending it to 32-6 with 6:00 remaining in the 2nd, before settling for a 42-17 lead at the half.

Both teams used most of their reserves during the 2nd half, which found Delphi trailing 66-30 by the end of the 3rd quarter en route to the 80-47 final.

Lewis led the Oracles with 13 points, followed by Oliver and Tanner Cripe with eight apiece. Myers added 7 points and a team-high 5 assists, while Banes had 5 points and a team-high 6 rebounds. Hawn, Snider and Bender each finished with two points.

Of Delphi's first eight opponents, four have been ranked among the state's top 15 in their respective class at the time that they played, and two are now ranked #1 (Tipton is currently 8-0 and atop of the Class 2A poll).

JV drops two close ones

Delphi's JV (5-4) lost two tough contests - 47-44 at Rossville and 43-34 at Northwestern.

At Rossville, Dustin Salyer led all scorers with 14 points and shared team-high board honors with Cripe with five apiece, while Kris Bender added 10 points, Paul Zink had eight, Cripe six and A.J. Erskin, Seferino Cervantes and Tyler Smith each had two.

James Baker led the Hornets with 12 points, with Dustin Griffey adding 10. Charlie Nichols had 7 rebounds.

At NW, Zink led with 13 points, followed by Salyer's seven, Cripe's six, Bender and Erskin with three apiece and Cervantes with two. Erskin led all rebounders with nine.

Delphi will host the Varsity White County Tournament this weekend, drawing Tri-County in the opening round, starting at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, followed by the Frontier-North White matchup at 8 p.m. The consolation game will be on Saturday at 6:30 pm, with the championship contest scheduled for tip-off at 8 pm.

The Oracles defeated the Cavaliers 53-39 on Dec. 15 in Delphi to set the stage for this tourney rematch.