Fourth quarter surge pushes Carroll past Delphi

DELPHI — Carroll went on a 9-0 run to open the fourth quarter and
used its height advantage to secure a 50-42 victory over Delphi in a
Class 2A boys basketball sectional opener Tuesday night.

It
was teams’ third meeting this season. Delphi won the season opener by
two points in November, and Carroll won the second game by one point in
overtime on Feb. 17.

Carroll
coach Jeff Hodson said he did a couple of things differently this time.
Defensively, he moved 6-foot-8 Seth Johnson and 6-5 Eric Miller to the
top of the Cougars’ 3-2 zone to challenge the Oracles’ outside
shooters, particularly leading scorer Austin Hawn.

Hawn, who totaled 46 points in the first two games, finished with 12 on 5 of 15 shooting from the field on Tuesday.

“We
put our guards down low in the zone,” Hodson said. “We said we weren’t
going to let them beat us with their outside game. We weren’t going to
let their guards shoot us out, so we got lucky and it worked out.”

Delphi
shot 28.2 percent. Carroll, on the other hand, shot 53.3 percent from
the field (16-for-30), including 4 of 9 from 3-point range.

Two
Kris Bender free throws gave the Oracles a 22-16 lead with 3:43 left in
the second quarter. Although Delphi held Carroll scoreless during the
next two minutes, the Oracles could only manage two points.

A
Tim Ruby steal and layup at the 1:36 mark seemed to ignite Carroll.
Layups by Seth Johnson and Miller helped cut the deficit to 24-22 by
halftime.

“That
steal broke any momentum we had,” Delphi coach Brian Tonsoni said. “We
didn’t have enough offense to make runs. We had more shots than they
did. We forced 24 turnovers. We defended in a championship way, but to
shoot 28 percent on our home court is very unfortunate.”

Carroll’s Kyle Geheb banked a 3-pointer just before the third quarter ended to give the Cougars the lead for good at 35-33.

Johnson
and Drew Yoder had 10 points apiece to lead Carroll. Johnson and his
6-11 brother, Riley, helped the Cougars earn a 30-19 rebounding
advantage.

“We
had a height advantage over them,” Seth Johnson said. “Bender was the
only person who could guard one of us, so the other was always open.

“Hawn
and Murray were good shooters and last time they hit a lot of 3s
against us. We were able to get a hand in their face, and we were able
to take away a lot of their shots.”

*Taken from the Lafayette Journal and Courier Online