By Chris Stevens, Editor
Junior guard Gabe Valmond and senior wing Jaheem Gadsden still had last year’s first round upset at the hands of Tatnall on their minds in Thursday’s DIAA boys’ basketball second round game at Archmere.
That motivation helped Delcastle’s dynamic duo combine for 33 points to erase a nine-point second quarter deficit and come away with a 61-48 win over the 16th-seeded Auks. The tournament win was the first for Delcastle head coach and former Cougar player Chris Laws.
“We had the playoff jitters coming out, but I talked to Jaheem, he said it was time to go and we just turned it up,” said Valmond, who finished with a game-high 20 points. “We got over it quickly. We’ve been here before, so we weren’t nervous at all.”
“We just got ourselves together, stayed patient on offense and aggressive on defense,” added Gadsden, who threw down four electrifying dunks on his way to a 13-point night. “I’m proud of everybody – we all stepped up, everybody did their job and played their roles well.”
The role of leader early on was played by the Diamond State Conference champion Auks, who used an assortment of movement and cuts to the basket to open up a 17-8 lead behind six points from senior forward Matt Dellose.
Valmond countered with seven points in a 17-6 run to close the quarter, including a rainbow three from the wing with 24 seconds left in the half to give Delcastle a 25-23 lead at the half.
From there, the Cougars turned on the pressure and when Valmond’s alley-oop off the glass was jammed home by Gadsden halfway through the third quarter for a 38-27 advantage, Delcastle (8-6) opened up a double-digit lead they would keep for the rest of the game. Amari Moses also scored in double figures for the Cougars with 11 points.
“This had been a crazy year. We didn’t know which way it was going to go,” Chris Laws said. Laws noted that because of Delcastle’s season on the road (their home gym was under repairs), hostile environments don’t bother them much.
“It turned us into road warriors,” he explained. “Our job this season is to come into someone else’s gym and make it quiet. We had a stretch where weren’t doing well on other people’s courts, but it made us stronger.”
Delcastle moves on to play top-seeded Sanford in the third round Saturday night at 6:30.
Matt Dellose led Archmere (10-4) with 13 points.
