Delta Basketball Loses in Last Seconds to Mott

Flint, Michigan -  

The Delta Men's basketball team knew that they would have to put together a complete basketball game to beat the 11^th ranked Mott Bears on the road Wednesday night.  For the Pioneers they would have to play with high energy on both ends of the court from start to finish.  The Delta men did exactly that but unfortunately for the Pioneers the basketball Gods weren't in their favor.  In the end, the Pioneers lost a heart breaker 67-66 to the Mott Bears.                

In a first half that was defensively dominated, points were hard to come by for both teams.  At the ten minute mark of the first half, the Pioneers held a 13-10 lead.  At the 6:15 mark of the half the Pioneers guard Jovon Thomason split a pair of free throws and they still clung onto a 14-13 lead.  The Mott Bears then got hot from the floor and went on a 17-5 run to finish the half and head into the break with a 30-19 lead.  For most of the first twenty minutes, the Pioneers couldn't get many shots to fall and finished the half with only six field goals, shooting 19% from the floor.                   

Coming out of the locker room, the Bears dominated the first four and a half minutes and extended their lead to 41-23.  The Pioneers then began to chip away at the Bears lead.  A Jonathan Swift lay-up followed up by a Thomason 3 point play cut the lead to 41-32 at the 14:15 mark of the second half.  A Virgil Walker put back and Trey Newsham driving lay-up cut the Bears lead down to six with 7:28 left.  Mott answered the run and hit a three pointer to push the lead back to twelve at the 4:20 mark.  The Pioneers then made their final push.  Back to back buckets by Jonathan Swift cut the Mott lead to seven with 2:00 left.  With 45 seconds left a Trey Newsham lay-up cut the lead down to one.  With 11.8 seconds remaining, Torion Wilson stole the inbound pass and found a cutting Swift who put the Pioneers up one 66-65.  With the ensuing possession, the Bears drove down the lane and hit a runner to regain the lead 67-66.  With 4 seconds left the Pioneers went the length of the court and their lay-up rimmed out, ending the game.                   

"When we got down by 18 early in the second half, we knew that we still had to stick to the game plan and we could chip away at their lead," said head coach Carlos McMath.  "We battled hard, had the lead in the last few seconds, and gave ourselves a chance to win."    

Jonathan Swift led the Pioneers with 23 points and 6 steals.  Jovon Thomason had 12 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 steals.  Trey Newsham chipped in with 10 points.  Virgil Walker had a team high 8 rebounds.            

"If you look at the statistical categories, we won a majority of them," said McMath.  "We did what we needed to do to win tonight and it just didn't happen.  We can't hang our heads for long, on to the next play and on to the next opponent."

The Delta Men's basketball team (7-6, 3-2) will host the Schoolcraft Ocelots (11-4, 3-1) on Saturday.  Schoolcraft is currently in 2^nd place in the MCCAA East.  They are ½ game ahead of the Pioneers in the standings.   Game time is 3:00 at Pioneer Gymnasium.