Taking it to the hoop Delphi Junior Justin Snider splits the defense and scores in the second quarter against Rossville Saturday night. The Oracles fell behind early and never could catch up with Rossville winning the contest 85-57. Bill Stauffer photo After a full three weeks off from game competition for the holiday break the Oracles reverted back to some early season nuisances in their return to action over the weekend. The Oracles came up short in both games, to Northwestern 58-41 on Friday and to Rossville on Saturday, 85- 57.

Turnovers and keeping control of the basketball were an issue Saturday night and cold-shooting was a detrimental culprit on Friday, while troublesome first halves were ubiquitous in both contests.

If not for the first halves of both contests, Delphi was only outscored by a combined score of 64-60. But, as in all sports, it is the full game that counts, as do all 32 minutes of a high school basketball game.

The Hornets exacted a measure of revenge from lastseason's heart-breaking loss to the Oracles in the waning seconds on their home floor. In the first half of play, Rossville took a 43-22 lead at halftime, and used a fullcourt, trapping defense to force Delphi into a seasonhigh 26 turnovers.

After averaging just over 11 miscues per game over the last four games, the Oracles suffered a relapse they had not seen for awhile, committing 16 turnovers in the first half and 24 after three quarters.

"We must get better in handling the press," head coach Brian Tonsoni said. "We need to make better decisions with the basketball."

"It is time for us to show some toughness and resolve and get things fixed," he added. "The kids work hard and now we must work on playing smart."

Delphi took its only lead on its first possession of the game as Tanner Cripe found Dustin Salyer on a back-door cut for a lay-up. The Oracles would keep it relatively close, trailing only 16-11 after two Austin Hawn free throws with 2:53 remaining in the first period, until Rossville started a 33-11 run over the next 11:23 of the game, including the final four points of the quarter to take a 20-11 lead at the first break.

A second quarter funk also returned for the Oracles who were outscored 23-11, including a 10-0 stretch that put the Hornets up 34-17 with 2:17 remaining. Another Hornet 9- 1 spurt over the final 1:40 of the half had RHS capitalizing on easy baskets after numerous ball-handling blunders in the backcourt.

Rossville (5-5) opened the second half where it left off, scoring the first six points in the first 30 seconds of the half to force a Delphi timeout with a commanding 49-22 lead.

The young Oracles would fight back, going on a 22-10 run of their own that started with consecutive baskets from Hawn (one trey) and ended with back-to-back three-pointers from Cripe and Salyer to close to within 59- 44 with 3:00 left in the quarter.

But the Hornets would respond with three straight three-pointers to close the quarter with a 9-0 run and a 68-44 lead en route to the final margin of victory.

Hawn led Delphi with 20 points, followed by Salyer with 14. Cripe and Paul Zink added seven apiece, while Kris Bender scored four, Justin Snider three and Jo Britt two.

Rossville had four players in double-figures led by Aaron Martin's double-double of 20 points and 10 rebounds, and crafty point guard Kendall Sadler's 20 points. Travis Perkins added 13 points and Ben Ummel had 12.

Vs. Northwestern

The excitement and anticipation surrounding the return of junior guard Justin Snider to the line-up was not enough for the Oracles to overcome the Wildcats on Friday night.

Northwestern head coach Jim Gish, a Carroll High School graduate, beat Delphi for the fourth straight time using two threes to jump to an 8-0 lead in the first 1:28 of the game and force an early timeout.

Delphi scored the next five points after an old-fashioned three-point play from Hawn and a basket from Salyer. They trailed 12-7 after a Bender bucket with 3:50 left before a 26-9 run over the next 13 minutes of the game put the Tigers up 36-16 at the half. A Hawn three-pointer with 1:10 into the third quarter put an end to the sluggish streak for the Oracles, now trailing 38-19.

Delphi outscored Northwestern 22-20 the rest of the way, but could not overcome a season-low 1-of-15 (.067 percent) shooting performance from beyond the arc and a season second-worst .333 percent (15-of-45) overall from the field against the Tigers.

Hawn led the Oracles with 12 points, followed by Bender with eight, Cripe with six, Jordan Wagner and Matt Brown with five apiece, Salyer with four and Snider with one.

Zech Sanders led the Tigers with 18 points, while Brayden Merrell added 11.

Delphi (1-8) will travel to Chalmers this weekend to face Frontier in the White County Tournament Friday night at 8 p.m., following the Tri-County-North White matchup in the opening round starting at 6:30. The consolation game will be on Saturday at 6:30 p.m., with the championship contest scheduled for tip-off at 8. The Oracles lost to the Falcons 63-49 at home on Dec. 6 to set the stage for the tourney rematch.

Junior Varsity drops a pair

Delphi's JV lost two tough contests over the weekend, 39-36 against Rossville and 53-38 vs. Northwestern.

The Rossville contest was in doubt until the final buzzer as Delphi's final three-point attempt rattled the rim and fell out to allow the Hornets to hold on for the win.

Brown led all scorers with 17 points, while Benoit Goffard added six, Tyler Smith had four and a game-high five assists, Cole Whitaker had three points and Karson Bender, Ethan Ross and Zach Condon each had two.

Matt Ummel led the Hornets with 15 points, with Justin Warren adding 10.

Against NW, the Tigers used a 31-13 rebounding advantage and committed only 8 turnovers to defeat Delphi.

Smith led the Oracles with 12 points, followed by Brown's 10, Condon's six, Wagner and Whitaker with four apiece and Bender with two.

The Delphi JV (3-6) will host its own White County Tournament with first-round action starting at 6 p.m. on Monday at DCHS, with the consolation and championship games slated for Tuesday, also starting at 6 p.m. at DCHS.