Balanced effort carries Delta boys basketball team to Class 1 District 2 win

OAK RIDGE -- The third-seeded Delta Bobcats used a balanced attack to dispose of the sixth-seeded Fulton at St. Albans Eagles.

The Bobcats received scoring from nine players en route to a 68-38 romp in a Class 1 District 2 boys basketball quarterfinal Saturday.

Delta opened the game on an 8-0 run and never looked back.

The Bobcats used a barrage of midrange jumpers and layups to subdue the overmatched Eagles.

"We're constantly trying to attack the basket," Delta coach Jimmy Johnson said. "The 3 was easy to come by today. We probably shot too many, but we still did a good job of getting enough shots in the lane and enough to win."

Delta's Dillon Lincoln drives against Fulton School defender Alec Loyd during the fourth quarter.

Delta started with a big run, but it took the majority of the quarter for the Bobcats to appear in rhythm.

Delta was sluggish in the opening minutes before awakening under Johnson's orders.

"We talked about it in the locker room -- you have to be focused for 32 minutes no matter who you're playing," Johnson said. "These guys played [Fulton] last year and had a pretty easy time, and I guess they thought it was going to be the same thing. But for me as a coach, we talked about respecting the game before in the locker room, and if you don't come out and play hard against your opponent, then you're not respecting the game and I'm not going to keep you out there on the floor. I made a few substitutions and I woke some guys up and we played well the rest of the way."

Delta was 17 of 29 (59 percent) from inside the arc in the opening half to grab a 21-point halftime lead.

A main spark on the inside for the Bobcats came from Austin Lashley.

The senior forward scored six points to go with several rebounds in the opening half.

"We were just swinging the ball as fast as we could," Lashley said. "Cutting through and getting an easy layup."

The offensive outburst surprisingly came with little help from the Bobcats' top scoring threat, senior guard Greg Brawley.

Brawley finished with just four points in the first half.

"I knew this was a lower-level team, and I knew my teammates wanted to score a few points," Brawley said about his first-half performance. "And plus I wasn't having a good game in the first place. I was missing 3-pointers and couldn't finish on layups, and I was just passing it to [my teammates] and letting them score a little bit."

Brawley more than made up for his lack of scoring in the third quarter.

He exploded for 11 of his game-high 20 points the third quarter. He went 5 of 6 from the field in the quarter.

"I was mostly just taking it to the basket because I was taking advantage of their small guys guarding me," Brawley said.

The Eagles never made a serious run in the second half. They fell behind 55-25 with a little more than three minutes remaining in the third quarter.

"[Coach] just told us to play our game," Lashley said. "Do what we do best and buckets will go."

The lone bright spot for the Eagles came from freshman guard Brendan Shine. He scored a team-high 19 points.

"He just put his head down and went to the goal," Johnson said. "And we just didn't move our feet and we didn't help and he was able to get in the lane."

The Bobcats will face second-seeded Oak Ridge in Tuesday's 7:30 p.m. semifinal.

It will be the fourth meeting between the two teams. Oak Ridge won two of the three games.

Fulton 6 13 9 10 -- 38

Delta 20 20 19 9 -- 68

FULTON SCHOOL (38) -- Matthew Fulton 2, Alec Loyd 2, Skyler Savoy 5, Brendan Shine 19, Sam Smalley 8, Spencer Thurston 3. FG 13. FT 10-13. F 14. (3-pointers: Savoy, Shine. Fouled out: none.)

DELTA (68) -- David Brawley 2, Greg Brawley 20, Austin Lashley 8, Dillon Lincoln 8, Dwight Nance 8, Dallas Naramore 9, Blake Perry 2, Frank Rozmirsky 9, Tanner Schabbing 8. FG 28. FT 11-22. F 14. (3-pointers: G. Brawley. Fouled out: none.)