The bottom line is if you can put the ball in the basket you win games and if you can’t you don’t.
Delta shot 60 percent from the floor in the opening quarter, racing to a 10 point lead and were never really threatened, knocking off cold-shooting Evergreen, 61-41, giving Panther interim coach Jeremy Lohman a victory in his first game as the head mentor in the night cap of a girls and boys doubleheader last Tuesday at Evergreen.
“We’ve been working hard all week on changing the culture, making people better passers and better team players,” said Lohman. “I thought we made the extra pass all night and played like a team more than we had all year.”
Noah Parsons got the Panthers off and running, scoring the first eight points of the game, including a pair of long triples to spur Delta’s first quarter run.
Then it was Bowen Green who scored eight consecutive Delta points in the second as the Panthers opening up a 30-17 halftime lead on the Vikings who shot just 7 for 27 in the first half.
That lead continued to expand in the third as Parsons and Marc Callahan combined for three baskets off the offensive glass as the Panthers led 45-29 after three.
Evergreen used a 9-2 burst to open the floor keyed by Chandler Lumbrezer’s triple and the third of three triples by Teagen Pinkelman to get back to single digits at 47-38 with 4:01 left, but a 10-0 Panther spurt in the next 2:20 led by fastbreak hoops from Parsons, Green and Tim Sonick put the game away.
Parsons’ 20 points and Green’s 16 led the Panthers (3-3 on the season).
Nick Etue had 12 for the Vikings (3-4). Lumbrezer added 10.


Joe Blystone can be reached at [email protected]