PIONEERS WIN IN CONVINCING FASHION

Alpena, Michigan -  

At the midway point of the conference season, the Delta College men's basketball team sat tied for fourth with a record of 4-4.  Saturday evening, they traveled to Alpena to face the Alpena Lumberjacks and begin the second half of the MCCAA Eastern Conference season.  The Pioneer men overcame a hostile home town crowd and rolled to a 90-53 road victory.        

In the first two and a half minutes, the Lumberjacks played scrappy and got off to an early lead 6-5.  This would prove to be their only lead of the game as the Pioneers played lock down defense and turned steals into transition buckets.  At the 13:28 mark a Torion Wilson transition basket capped a 13-2 run and the Pioneers held a 17-8 lead.  Back to back baskets by Devin Smith and a three pointer by Trey Newsham pushed the Pioneer lead to 18, 31-13 with 6:33 left in the half.  The Delta men carried the momentum the remainder of the half and held a 49-27 lead at the break.                 

In the second half, the Pioneers executed in the half court and cleaned up the offensive glass.  A basket by Devonte Allen and put back by Jacob Thomann expanded the Delta lead to 30 points with ten minutes to play and took the wind out of the home team.          

"We have been looking at shuffling around the rotation a little bit," said head coach Carlos McMath.  "I liked the way different combinations played together.  I am hoping we can build on this and continue to grow as we make a push in the second half of the season."    

The Pioneers had a balanced scoring attack with three players reaching double figures.  They were led by Virgil Walker with 19 points, 12 rebounds, and 2 blocks.  Trey Newsham added 19 points, connecting on 5 three pointers.  Devin Smith chipped in with 15 points.  Jonathan Swift and Manny Dosanjh had a team high 5 assists apiece.      

"Road wins are always tough in our league," said McMath.  "We have a stretch of our schedule where we play four road games in a row and it was important that we got started on the right foot." 

The Delta men's basketball team (9-8, 5-4) will travel to Wayne County Community College (10-8, 4-5) on Wednesday evening.  In the first meeting this season Delta won 76-56.  Last season, when Delta played down at Wayne they had a tough defeat 91-84 in double overtime.  Game time is 7:30.

"Wednesday night will be another challenging game for us because they are a very talented squad and it is hard to beat a team twice in our conference," said Coach McMath.