Fouled! Delphi's Dustin Snyder is fouled going to the bucket during the White County Tourney consolation game against Tri- County. The Oracles defeated the Cavaliers 60-46. Kris Bender. #21, is seen in the background. Bill Stauffer photo Delphi nearly played to perfection Saturday night at Chalmers during a 60-46 victory over Tri-County in the consolation game of the White County Tournament. They fell 56-44 in the firstround to host Frontier.

Frontier went on to defeat North White 57-40 in the championship to finally win the White County Tournament after losing in the finale to Tri- County each of the past three years.

After struggling with turnovers and with shooting percentage at times during the season, the Oracles were able to perform well in the same game in both areas Saturday night, setting season-highs in points scored (60), field goal percentage (.667, 22-of-33), three-point field goal percentage (.600, 6-of-10) while committing a season-low of seven turnovers.

And for the first time this season, the Oracles played a game in which they led the entire way and never trailed, leading 15-7 at the first break, then increasing the lead each of the next two quarters - up to16 at 35-19 at the half, then to 19 at 46-29 at the end of three quarters, before settling for the 14-point margin of victory.

Delphi jumped to an early 6-0 lead on back-to-back three-pointers from Austin Hawn to force the first Cavalier timeout less than three minutes into the contest and did not miss a single shot during the entire quarter, shooting a perfect 5-for-5 from the field, 3-of-3 from the threepoint arc and 2-fof-2 from the foul line, while holding Tri- County (0-10) to just two baskets for the entire quarter.

Paul Zink then parlayed the Oracle's pressure defense into five quick points, pushing the lead to 20-10 to open the second period as Delphi continued to blister the nets at .765 percent (13-of-17) from the field for the half.

Delphi built the lead to a high of 20 points at 44-24 after a Hawn three-pointer with 3:20 left in the third period.

Tri-County did have a 15-6 mini-spurt to get back to within 50-39 before another Hawn three-pointer provided the final dagger to push the Oracle lead back up to 14 with 2:52 to play en route to the final margin of victory.

Hawn finished with 14 points, including 4-of-7 from behind the arc, to share gamehigh scoring honors with Justin Snider, whose 14 points were a season-high in just his fourth game back from injury.

Zink added nine points, Dustin Salyer had eight points and a game-high seven assists, while Kris Bender had eight points, Tanner Cripe five and Matt Brown two.

First-round: vs. Frontier

Delphi was hoping to improve upon the result of its 63- 49 loss to Frontier on Dec. 6 in White County Tournament first-round action Saturday morning. The game had been postponed from Friday night due to weather. The Oracles were successful in almost every statistical category except the one that really counts - the win column.

Despite posting better marks than in the previous contest in three-point shooting (.429 percent to .350 percent), overall shooting (.529 to .375), steals (8 to 7), assists (16 to 14), and committing fewer turnovers (18 to 25), the Oracles were only able to shave two points off of the final deficit this time around, in part to being out-rebounded 19-11 and allowing many more points off of turnovers than they were able to generate.

From the onset, Delphi's game-plan was to control the ball offensively against the Falcon zone, with lengthy possessions that featured a lot of passing around the perimeter, while rarely looking for a shot in an effort to shorten the game by taking time off of the clock, and limiting opponent's possessions. Using this strategy to reduce opposing scoring opportunities would hopefully result in a lower score that would keep the game closer for a longer period of time, with the ultimate goal of having a chance to win at the end by keeping it close throughout.

It worked for awhile as the Oracles held onto the ball for most of the first period, scoring on three-pointers from both Hawn and Snider and limiting Frontier to a few possessions to take a 7-3 lead at the first break. Jordan Wagner opened the second quarter with a jumper to put Delphi in front 9-3 before the Oracles experienced another second quarter meltdown, going scoreless over the next 5:12. That led to a 12-0 Falcon run before Hawn nailed a three-pointer with 1:58 left in the half to keep it close at 15- 12.

But Frontier (8-2) would close the half with another 7-2 run to take a 22-14 lead into the halftime intermission.

The Falcons then began to pull away a bit, extending the lead to as many as 17 points twice as Delphi seemed to lose its way offensively, scoring only nine points in the period to trail 38-23 after three quarters.

The never-give-up Oracles fought back, cutting the lead to seven at 40-33 with 6:11 left on back-to-back threes from Hawn, then to within six at 43- 37 with 4:28 remaining on consecutive baskets from Zink.

Frontier responded with five straight points to push the lead back to 11, before another Zink hoop and Hawn trey sandwiched a Falcon bucket to keep it close at 50-42 with 3:24 left. But it was not enough, as a final 6-0 home team spurt over the next two minutes sealed the victory.

Hawn led the Oracles with 15 points, including 5-of-8 from three-point range, while Zink added 12, Wagner six, Snider and Salyer four apiece and Cripe three. Salyer again dished-out a game high six assists.

The Falcons had three players in double-figures, led by Dylan Sterrett's 17, Jon-Marc Ream's 15 and Mack Loop's 13.

Delphi (2-9) will be on the road this weekend, traveling to Sheridan on Friday night with the JV contest starting at 6:30 p.m. and to Cass on Saturday with the JV game scheduled for tip-off at 6 p.m.

JV loses tough one

Delphi JV hosted the firstround of the White County Tournament Monday night and lost a 30-29 heartbreaker to Frontier.

The Oracles overcame a 12- 7 halftime deficit to tie the score at 21 at the end of three periods, but could not bring home the victory despite beating the Falcons 35-24 earlier this season.

Brown and Ethan Ross led Delphi with 11 points apiece, while Karson Bender added four and Tyler Smith three.

Silas Maxwell led Frontier with seven points.

Delphi JV (3-7) played North White in the consolation game of the tournament on Tuesday night in Delphi, while Frontier moved on to face Tri- County in the championship game, both played too late to be included in this week's edition of the Comet.