Royals take ESIAC title over the Dragons
The Delmarva Christian boys’ basketball team got revenge on the Salisbury School Feb. 17, defeating the Dragons 70-61 to win the Eastern Shore Independent Athletic Conference Championship. Salisbury had upset the Royals 88-86 in the championship game last season.
The Royals led from the tip, jumping out to a 16-3 lead and scoring 40 first-half points. The Dragons outscored the Royals 32-30 in the second half, but Delmarva Christian held on to garner the victory.
The Royals were led by senior Carter Breasure with 19 points, including three three-pointers. Junior Ed Higgins knocked down 18. Junior Mason Bohinski added 17, including four triples.
Junior Tyler Ball led the Dragons with 24 points, while senior Pierce Vazquez scored 13.
“Our boys are tough,” said Royals coach Marc Hannah. “We’ve said all year God is for us, won’t be against us. We knew they would make a run, but we were built for us. I so admire those guys on Salisbury School. There is no quit in them. They have a couple of really good guys, but we have a team. All of our team has started at one time or another. They are so selfless. We started out this year to win this title, and we did it.”
“It’s always good to end on a win,” said Breasure. “We just executed what we needed to do and got it done. We knew that Tyler [Bell] is a great player, but he wasn’t going to beat us alone. We just had to lock down Pierce [Vazquez], who is their second-best player. If we locked him down, one player can’t beat five.”
“Salisbury has two really good standouts,” said Higgins, who played the whole 32 minutes for the Royals. “We have a whole team. There isn’t a guy that we can sub out for and get a player that isn’t just as good.”
Salisbury’s Ball received the 2023 ESIAC Player of the Year award.
