In front of their home fans and on their home court, Delta High School (7-7, 0-2 Hoosier Heritage) wins the 2022 Delaware County Basketball Tournament after defeating Wapahani High School (10-3, 3-0 Mid-Eastern) 59-54. This is the 21st time the Eagles have been crowned victors in this tournament, which has been played since 1929, and the fifth time in the past seven years Delta has won.
“This group has had a lot of growing up to do, and I think we finally grew up these past couple of weeks,” Delta's head coach Mark Detweiler said. “We had great balance tonight, shared the ball. When you do those things, good things can happen. These last two weeks have been really good to us, because when you practice the right way, you get results like that.”
Delta was spearheaded by a talented trio. Sophomore Jackson Wors led the Eagles in scoring, coming away with 19 points along with five rebounds. Senior Neil Marshall was Delta’s go-to scorer in the first half, finishing with 18 points and four rebounds. Sophomore D’Amare Hood tallied 16 points and five rebounds. Wors, Marshall and Hood combined for 53 of Delta’s 59 points.
“You can win if you win the points in the paint,” Detweiler said. “And we won the points in the paint tonight. We had three guys: Neil Marshall, Jackson Wors, D’Amare Hood. [They] did a lot of damage along the lane, and that’s a big deal.”
Wapahani was led by their dynamic duo of junior Aidan Franks and sophomore Isaac Andrews. Franks led all scorers with 24 points, while Andrews added in 20 points to go along with three rebounds and a game-high seven assists.
“We knew they [Franks and Andrews] were going to get theirs,” Detweiler said. “We wanted to keep them off the free throw line, wanted to keep them out of the paint. Thought we did that for the most part.”
The Raiders nearly completed a comeback. With less than a minute remaining, Delta held a 57-49 lead. After two free throws by freshman Nate Luce to make it a six point gap, a Delta turnover resulted in a three for Andrews. After a jump ball gave Wapahani the ball back with just under 30 seconds left, Andrews missed the subsequent shot, and Marshall nailed two free throws to bring the game to its conclusion.
“A lot of it was thinking about the next run,” Detweiler said. “They’re talented, but I thought we took care of the basketball, made the extra pass, and that was key for us. Good things happen when you trust each other and you play together.”
Delta will be on the road Friday, Jan 21 to take on Pendleton Heights (2-10, 0-2 HHC). Tipoff starts at 7:30 p.m. Wapahani will travel to New Castle (9-2, 2-1 HHC) Saturday, Jan 22. Tipoff is at 7:30 p.m.
Contact Nate Grubb at nathaniel.grubb@bsu.edu or on Twitter @GrubbNate43