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Third Quarter Boosts Tech
Past Scrappy Delmar 67-48
By DAVID MAULL, Cafe Locale
Sussex Tech may be one of the best boys' high school basketball teams in the State of Delaware this season, but it made one miscalculation entering Friday night's home game against Delmar on Jan. 15, 1999.
The Ravens forgot Delmar is not the same team that won just three games all of last season, and they got a quick reminder when the Wildcats roared to a six-point first-quarter lead and withstood a second-period Tech rally to trail by just two at halftime.
"We were real upset (at halftime) because most of us came out thinking they can't play with us, they shouldn't be in the gym with us. Our heads were big, so they showed us," Tech guard Brandon Palmer said. "We knew what we had to do when we came out in the second half."
After Delmar pulled even in the opening minute of the second half, Tech reeled off 12 straight points as part of a 24-3 run that blew the game open and paved the way to a 67-48 victory.
With their ninth straight victory, fifth-ranked Tech improved to 7-1 in conference play and 10-1 overall.
"We were in foul trouble a little bit and what we tried to do was just play a half-court game and just extend our matchup and it seemed to confuse them a little bit," Tech coach Jerry Kobasa said of the second half. "We were actually moving our feet a little bit better. We didn't to that in the first half. We had guys cheating, looking for the steal, and that's not us. Our defense is predicated upon playing passing lanes."
Tech's strong half-court defense created a slew of third-quarter turnovers and kept Delmar's 6-foot-10 center Demond Thomas from getting the ball in the low post. Thomas finished with 12 points but managed just a single free throw in the decisive third quarter.
"He's made a lot of improvement from what I saw last year," Kobasa said of Thomas. "He's become a much better ball player. He's worked real hard. He had us worried."
Brian Polk paced Tech with 24 points while Palmer added 12.
The win allowed Tech to keep pace with Seaford (also 7-1 in the conference) in the tough Henlopen North. Seaford defeated Tech 70-67 on Dec. 11 but a rematch is scheduled for Feb. 5 in Seaford.
Tech led Delmar just 31-29 at halftime and Wildcats pulled even when Dustin Johnson sank a 10-footer to open the third quarter. But it was all Tech from that point on, as Tynell Tingle hit an 18-footer and a 3-pointer and Palmer converted a Polk steal into a layup as part of a 12-0 run that made it 43-31 with 4:05 left in the period.
Delmar's Scott Hearn temporarily stopped the bleeding with a baseline jumper but Tech's Robert Hooks responded with a 3-pointer and a layup. When Polk added a pair of crowd-pleasing dunks, one of which he converted into a 3-point play, the Ravens had extended their lead to 55-34.
Despite some ragged play by Tech in the fourth quarter, Delmar got no closer than 13 the rest of the way. Hearn led the Wildcats with 16 points.
"We're playing together," Palmer said when asked about the keys to Tech's success. "We talk about that all the time."
For a while, it appeared an upset was in the making as Delmar raced to an early 11-5 lead and held a 21-17 advantage at the end of the first quarter. Hearn had six points in the period while Thomas had a backboard rattling dunk and a 3-point play.
Polk had 12 first-quarter points for the Ravens and his teammates got into the act early in the second period. Darnell Bryant had a pair of baskets as Tech ran off eight straight to open the quarter and grab its first lead of the game, 25-21.
But the Wildcats hung tough, trading scores with the Ravens over the next six minutes and heading into halftime trailing just 31-29.
"Any time we've ever played Delmar, they always play hard," Kobasa said. "This guy (coach Sean Alvarado) has got them playing very hard and he's got them doing things that are much more fundamentally sound. They're really playing well together."
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