Arcadia too hot for Delmarva Christian boys’ basketball

While still undefeated against Delaware teams, the Delmarva Christian boys’ basketball squad fell short of a two-game sweep of Virginia teams when it lost to Arcadia 62-49 Feb. 3.

The Royals upended Nandua Jan. 18 at home, but they could not overcome the visiting Firebirds, who snapped Delmarva Christian’s four-game win streak.

“We missed a lot of foul shots, and we're normally a good foul-shooting team,” said Royals coach Marc Hannah. “We got ourselves in a hole in the first half – we had three guys in foul trouble – and then we had to dig ourselves out of that hole.”

Arcadia’s high-flying team forced the Royals into poor passes and outworked Delmarva Christian on the offensive glass to create second-chance opportunities. At one point in the third quarter, Arcadia led by 16 points after starting the second half up 35-22.

“Hats off to [Arcadia], they did what they had to do,” Hannah said.

Battling through the sluggish shooting, the Royals climbed back into striking distance and trailed 43-41 to force an Arcadia timeout at a pivotal moment. It proved to be the closest Delmarva Christian would get.

“We rushed, we turned it over, and then it just started to snowball,” Hannah said. “I think that's a learning curve for us; we’ve got to learn how to cross that threshold. Two minutes is still a lot of time in a game, plenty of time to come back.”

The Firebirds snatched momentum from the Royals in those final two minutes to take a double-digit lead and eventually won the contest 62-49.

“We love basketball, but this is not the totality of our life: Jesus is our life,” Hannah said. “There's a lesson in perseverance; our goals are still alive: Win our conference, win our conference championship and make states. We’ve got to win one game at a time.”

Before the 5:30 p.m. tip-off of a doubleheader encore against Salisbury School Thursday, Feb. 6, Delmarva Christian will celebrate its senior players and cheerleaders.