MUNCIE, Ind – Delta High School was the site of the Holiday Classic for the third time in four seasons. Two Delaware County teams – Delta and Muncie Central – competed in the event, and in Friday’s first round, the Eagles booked themselves in the championship game while the Bearcats played well enough to appear in Saturday’s third-place game.
Here’s how the day unfolded for the two area programs.
Delta: 2-0
The Eagles played the second game of the day and looked to continue their six-game winning streak. To do that, they had to face Fort Wayne South Side, which featured a taller lineup than the blue and gold have seen this season.
It was something Delta head coach Mark Detweiler took note of before the contest began. But despite losing the eye test, the Eagles continued their good play and defeated the Archers 54-49.
“That’s a good quality win… They've had a good year so far coming in with one loss,” Detweiler said. “We knew rebounding and points in the paint were gonna be big.”
After eight straight points from senior Chase Ritchie, the Eagles were in the driver’s seat to begin the contest. But the Archers did not stay silent as they led 16-14 at the end of the first quarter. A few minutes into the second quarter, they led 24-14 as the Eagles could not locate any momentum on offense.
“I just didn't think we played with real grit in the first half,” Detweiler said. “I thought aw just kind of let them run their stuff.”
However, the second half was when the blue and gold found their rhythm as they seemed to be more aggressive. Deflections, a faster pace of offense, and all-around better play around the basketball did the trick as the Eagles went on to take the win.
“If there was a way to gauge the amount of fuel they used in the first half and the amount of fuel we used in our tank in the second half,” Detweiler said.
“We used a lot more than we did in the first half.”
One of the other factors was the performance of senior Bronson Edwards, who led the team with 14 points.
“In the first half, I thought I was playing hard, and in reality, I just wasn't playing that hard,” Edwards said. In the second half, I was just a lot more active.”
Edwards, junior Lucas Bragg and senior Jordan Furney all scored in double figures – Bragg and Furney both had 12 points. This was something Detweiler wanted his team to work on throughout the event.
In Delta’s second game of the day, the Eagles took on Scecina and hoped to get a berth in the championship game. While the first quarter was competitive, the second quarter was something else.
“That was a good quarter, wasn’t it?” Detweiler asked.
In the period, the Eagles went on a 19-4 scoring run and jumped out to a halftime lead of 35-19. Following that, it was all Delta as the blue and gold topped the Crusaders 63-41. Bragg led the Eagles with 17 points while Edwards added 16.
“We had gotten away from who we were earlier and they fixed it,” Detweiler said. “They were able to kind of reel themselves back in and get back into our moves.”
The Eagles will play Providence in Saturday’s title game. It will start at 8 p.m.
Muncie Central: 1-1
Coming into their first game of the event, the Bearcats were on a three-game losing streak and in their last game, suffered an overtime loss to Delta. Muncie Central head coach Justin Ullom said after the game his team needed to find something.
In their first game of the Holiday Classic, they did just that, knocking off Columbia City 57-52.
“It always makes it fun when you hold on and win the game,” Ullom said. “We made some big three throws and had really strong shooting in the second half.”
While multiple players impacted the game, the top Bearcat was freshman Jaxon Johnson, who led the purple and black with 22 points. But it wasn’t his scoring that impressed his head coach.
“We need the scoring, but the reason Jackson Johnson gets a whole lot of minutes is because he's been arguably our best defender in most games,” Ullom said.
While Muncie Central opened the game with a 9-2 lead, the Eagles were not bothered as they turned the table and only trailed 31-29 at halftime. But in the second half, Johnson’s positive performance continued to shine as he knocked down multiple free throws late in the game.
In Muncie Central’s second game of the day against Providence, the Bearcats started where they left off, jumping to a 13-6 lead. However, things changed in the second quarter as the purple and black started to struggle.
“They are tough and physical, and we expected that, but something switched with our shot selection,” Ullom said. “I thought a whole lot of good work over the last week and a half to two weeks of sharing the ball and hunting great shots turned into ‘It’s my turn to shoot.”
After halftime, it was even more noticeable as the Bearcats only scored eight points as they fell to Providence 38-25. Due to that, they will play in the third-place game tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. Ullom wants to see improvement in multiple areas.
“I want energy for all four quarters,” he said. “You see that by them talking to each other, giving touches, communicating on defense, all that stuff.”
Contact Zach Carter via email at zachary.carter@bsu.edu or via X @ZachCarter85.
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