Playing perhaps its toughest back-to-back games of the season, Delphi lost a 35-33 heartbreaker vs. Class 3A Hoosier Conference rival West Lafayette Friday night, before taking Class 4A Lafayette Jeff to the wire in a 63-53 defeat on Saturday. In a defensive struggle against the Red Devils, Cole Murray hit a step-back fade away from the right baseline to tie the score at 33 with :34 seconds remaining before the WL game-winning shot.

West Lafayette leading scorer Drake Danford, who was held to a season-low 7 points by a smothering Oracle defense, tried to win it with a jumper just inside the lane, but the ball bounced long off the rim and into the hands of 6’5” Red Devil Brian Bangs, who all in one motion, picked it up and by his own postgame admission, “just turned around and threw it in the air” at the buzzer, and it fell through the net for the win.

It was just Bangs second field goal of the game, finishing with 4 points on 2-of-8 shooting.

“West Lafayette is an extremely disciplined ball club that had a lot of size, “ Delphi head coach Mike Lewis said. “I thought we did a great job with our post defense and keeping their ‘bigs’ off the glass.”

Despite being out-sized at nearly every position, the Oracles were only out-rebounded 28-26, led by Ricky Windell with 7 and both Murray and Garrett Johnson with 6 apiece.

With a WL defense designed around taking Murray, Delphi’s leading scorer at 19.5 points per game entering the contest, out of the game, points were harder to come by, but not to be out-done, the Oracles also had an inspired defensive effort that held Danford to just 3-of-11 shooting on the night. The Red Devils (12-3) were limited to just 33.3 percent shooting (14-of-42) from the field, while Delphi shot 28.6 percent (10-of-35).

In a slow offensive start by both teams, the Oracles were held scoreless for over six minutes until a Brent Hawn three-pointer with 1:55 left in the period got Delphi on the board, before closing the quarter down 10-4. The Oracles narrowed the margin to 17-12 at the half, before using a pair of treys from Hawn and Erik Carpenter and hitting 6- of-7 foul shots in the 3rd period to take a 26-25 lead at quarter end.

A Hawn triple and a layup from Murray kept the game close in the 4th period before the final minute heroics.

Hawn led Delphi with 12 points, followed by 6 apiece from Murray and Windell, Carpenter with 5 and Codey Sattler with 4.

“I thought Hawn had a really nice floor game handling their pressure defense and being assertive on the offensive end as they tried to take away Cole,” Lewis added. Vs. Lafayette Jeff

Playing Jeff for the first time since the 1995-96 season, the Oracles might have surprised the Bronchos (9-5) a bit with an opening period offensive blitz to take an early 20-8 lead at quarter end. But Jeff’s leading scorer, 6’5” Rashad Richardson finally took over after being held scoreless in the 1st quarter, scoring 15 of 17 Broncho 2nd period points, but Delphi stayed hot, shooting 66.7 percent (14-of-21) in the 1st half to maintain a 33-25 lead at halftime.

Richardson remained dominant, scoring 11 of the first 16 Jeff points in the 2nd half en route to a game-high 32, as the Bronchos finally took their first lead of the game at 44-42 on a trey with :29 seconds left in the 3rd period. Despite a courageous Oracle effort, which saw them still only trailing by three at 52-49 with 3:35 left in the game and by just six at with :54 seconds left, Jeff hit four foul shots in the final :30 seconds for the final margin.

“Lafayette Jeff is the most athletic team that we will see all year,” Lewis added. “I am very grateful that we got an opportunity to play them as this will help us immensely come tourney time.”

“We just can’t replicate the kind of pressure that they can apply and I thought we did a great job of handling it most of the game,” he added. “It showed real progression from earlier in the year vs. Catholic and Tipton.”

Murray finished with another double-double with 29 points and 11 rebounds, while Sattler added 7 points, Windell 6, Hawn 5, Johnson 4 and Carpenter 2.

“Murray had an outstanding game,” Lewis said. “He is extremely effective when he is working his game inside out and attacking the glass.”

“This was a weekend that will really help us come Sectional time,” he added. “It was an opportunity to compete against Lafayette’s best, and our kids did a great job of stepping up to the competition.”

“We talk about getting better each game, and we definitely got a lot better this weekend.”

Delphi (7-6) plays at Carroll Friday for a 6:30 p.m. JV tip-off, before visiting Rensselaer Saturdaywitha6p.m. JV start. JV defeats Jeff The Oracle JV (7-5) rebounded from a 46-26 loss to West Lafayette to defeat the Bronchos 42-39, led by Mason Lane with a seasonhigh 18 points, followed by Chanc Jordan with 13, Peyton Wagner 7 and Adam Shanks 4.

Against WL, Lane led with 9 points, with Wagner adding 7, Jordan and Shanks 4 each, and Dax Kendall 2.