Delmarva Christian girls’ basketball opens season with win streak
Starting fast and finishing with resiliency, the Delmarva Christian girls’ basketball team downed local rival Sussex Academy 47-29 on the Seahawks’ opening night Dec. 6.
“We preach relentless-style energy, and they've come out with that the first two games,” said Royals coach Frank Roach. “Sometimes it's hard to sustain it for a full game, and sometimes we kind of relax a little bit, but I'm liking the first-half energy to get us started.”
Jumping out to a 7-0 lead in less than two minutes, the Royals used the fast start to go ahead 15-2 after one quarter.
“Our team is getting more confident as we go; it’s a bit of a different season because we've lost many seniors, but I think we're slowly gaining our confidence,” said Royals senior Layni Dukes. “We've been working really hard in practice, and it's clearly paying off.”
A young Seahawks team played the second period much closer, but Delmarva Christian took a 24-9 lead into halftime. Seven different Royals scored.
“We trust our teammates. We can run up the assists as well, like tonight, just moving the ball around,” Dukes said. “I think one of the best things you can do on offense is move the ball around to get everybody to score.”
Delmarva Christian opened the second half without the services of guard Bella Marinelli.
“In the second half, we had Avery McCoy, a freshman, step up, hit a couple shots; Eva Elliott was handling the ball, helping out, and Riley Barto came off the bench and gave us good minutes defensively,” Roach said.
A third quarter played close to the chest by both teams set up a fourth quarter that began with the Royals out front 31-15. A reenergized Seahawks squad, thanks to a Grayce Glover buzzer-beater, began to break through on both ends.
“I was happy to see us starting to be ourselves in that fourth quarter,” said Seahawks coach Rayona Benson. “That’s our bread and butter – defense – and then in transition, we’ve got to be able to convert that.”
A brief surge by Sussex Academy was followed by another Royals run, resulting in a 47-29 final.
Benson said she knew there would be some growing pains with a young squad, but she thinks her guards can take more control on the court.
“They are the generals of the floor – they can literally control the tempo. If they're playing hot potato, the rest of the team is going to play hot potato,” Benson said. “They have to be confident so that everybody else on the team can be confident; if they're not confident, then the team itself will not be.”
