Tanner Cripe’s game-winning, driving layup with three seconds to play sealed Delphi’s hard-fought 46-44 Hoosier Conference win over West Lafayette Friday night at home. The game opened the weekend that also saw the Oracles win at South Newton 61-40 on Saturday.

In avenging last year’s 57- 17 loss to the Red Devils (7- 7, 4-2 in conference), the Oracles needed a fast start and got just that as Austin Hawn scored Delphi’s first 11 points, leading to an 11-5 lead in the first 4 1/2 minutes before West Side shifted to the familiar face-guarding gimmick defense in an attempt to slow him down.

But just like almost every other time teams have tried this strategy over the past two seasons, it backfired as it again opened up offensive opportunities for Oracle teammates. A WL defender was no longer playing any type of help-side defense or switching because of the sole focus on Hawn.

And Delphi again used its other weapons to respond, using baskets from Dustin Salyer and Kris Bender to hold onto a 15-12 lead at the 1st period end. The Oracles went on an 8-0 run to start the 2nd quarter with a bucket and a free throw from Bender and a three-pointer and a hoop from Cole Murray to open a 23-12 lead at the 4:41 mark.

Hawn and Cripe added baskets to help hold onto a 27-20 halftime lead, but another 3rd quarter offensive drought that saw only a Cripe trey in the first 6 1/2 minutes led to a 10- 3 WL run to tie the score at 30 before two foul shots from Cripe with 1:35 remaining preceded the Red Devils’ first lead of the game at 33-32 at quarter end.

A 4th period that saw the teams trade baskets with four lead changes, opened with two freebies from Bender to put the Oracles back on top at 34-33 and included key hoops from Hawn for a 37-35 lead with 5:04 to play and Jordan Wagner for a 41-40 lead with 3:41 left. Delphi also connected on 6-of-8 from the free-throw line, with Cripe hitting 1-of-2 with :50 seconds remaining to tie the score at 44 and set-up the final heroics.

“Tanner stepped up when we could not get into the designed set,” Oracle head coach Brian Tonsoni said. “A big-time play by a senior captain.”

“Austin got us off to a great start and we played with confidence after that,” he added. “Our offense was efficient all night but West Lafayette played outstanding defense.”

For only the third time this season, Delphi (2-2 in conference) shot at least .500 percent (16-of-32) from the field, snapping a five-game losing streak to West Side, dating back to the 2003-04 season.

“Our defensive effort was excellent and kept us in the game,” Tonsoni said. “And we had a nice effort on their leading scorer George Zhang, holding him to eight points under his average.”

Hawn led all scorers with 15 points, followed by Cripe with 10, Bender 9, Wagner and Murray 5 apiece, and Salyer 2. Cripe also dished out a team-high 4 assists, while Matt Brown added a game-high 4 steals.

Vs. South Newton

Coming off of a big conference win against a talented opponent, the Oracles started a bit slowly Saturday night, their first of five straight away games, trailing 12-10 at the end of the 1st quarter. They then outscored the Rebels 21-7 during the 2nd period, including a 9-0 run in the final 1:45 of the half to take a 31-19 lead into halftime.

South Newton (5-12) struck first in the 2nd half to cut the lead to 10, but would get no closer the rest of the way. Delphi extended its lead to 42-24 by the end of the 3rd period, before cruising to the 21-point final margin.

The Oracles again were clutch down the stretch from the foul line, hitting 12-of-14 (.857 percent) over the final 4:23 of the game, while connecting on 22-of-26 (.846 percent) freebies for the game.

“We did not execute offensively as well on Saturday,” Tonsoni said. “We scored enough to win, but we need to tighten up our execution and decision making.”

“We scored a lot off of our defense,” he added. “And we again shut down their leading scorer, holding him to just three points.”

Delphi used a balanced attack led by Wagner with 14 points, followed by Hawn with 12, Bender and Brown with 8 apiece, Salyer 7, Cripe 5, Murray 4, Zach Condon 2 and Cole Whitaker 1.

Cripe again led with a game-high 8 assists, with Hawn adding team-highs of 5 rebounds and 4 steals.

The Oracles (7-5) travel to Carroll Friday night in the back-half of the home-andhome series with the JV game starting at 6:30 p.m., before heading to Rensselaer on Saturday with the JV tipoff at 6 p.m.

JV splits weekend

The Delphi JV team (6-6) lost a close one to West Lafayette 31-27 on Friday, before rebounding with a 40- 25 victory over South Newton Saturday.

Whitaker led the way with 12 points against WL, followed by Murray with 6, Karson Bender and Ricky Windell with 4 apiece and Codey Sattler with 1. Windell had a team-high 6 rebounds.

Murray led with 13 points, 8 boards and 4 blocks against SN, Sattler added 8 points, Whitaker and Windell 6 apiece, Bender, Erik Carpenter and Cody Lohrman 2 apiece and Blake Walters 1. Carpenter added 5 assists.