HARTFORD CITY - It was experience against inexperience in the Blackford Regional championship game, and it wasn't hard to see which team brought experience to the party.
Taking the regional crown 64-50 over the Whitko Wildcats Saturday night in Hartford City, the Delta Eagles hit 8 of 11 three-pointers, maintaining a solid lead the entire way."(Delta) has been here, and it took a while for our young kids to get comfortable in playing," Whitko coach Rob Irwin said. "Once we got comfortable, I thought we did a little better job. It's just learning. If we ever get another chance to do this, we'll be a little more experienced. If you watched (Delta) they never got rattled, even when we were making our run. We just dug too deep of a hole."
Playing in their second-straight regional championship game, the Eagles capitalized on early Whitko miscues, taking a 11-5 lead before senior Ryan Bumbaugh hit Whitko's first bucket with 3:18 remaining, cutting the lead to 11-7.
Delta held a 17-11 lead at the end of the first, but it seemed like more, thanks seven of the Wildcat's 11 points coming from the free-throw line.
After a three-pointer from Delta senior Skylar Case with 5:21 remaining in the second quarter, the Eagles held a commanding 25-13 lead, but as they've done before in the tournament, the Wildcats made a comeback.
Using a 9-0 run over the next two minutes, Whitko was within 25-22, but five-straight points by Delta down the stretch, including a three-pointer by junior Tanner Wehlage as time ran out, put the Wildcats behind 30-22 at the half.
"That 3 at the end of the half, just killed us," Irwin said of the trey. "We would have been down five, and things would have been a little easier."
A three-pointer by Whitko freshman Logan Irwin brought his team to within 30-25 to open the second half, but a 6-0 Delta run extended the lead back to 36-25.
From there, the lead was cut to eight, but that was as close as the Wildcats could get.
"We had a 14-, 15-point lead, but it didn't feel like that many points," Delta coach Paul Keller said, referring to Whitko's penchant for making comebacks. "I knew (Whitko) had a lot of heart and I knew they could trap pretty well. I wasn't comfortable until the horn went off."
The Wildcats did fight back from a 13-point deficit to defeat Harding in the day's earlier semifinal, but against an experienced Eagles team, a comeback wasn't in the cards.
"These guys aren't as athletic, but they shoot the ball so much better," Irwin said about the difference between Harding and Delta. "They're really fundamental."
In Delta's earlier game, two overtime periods were needed to get rid of the Peru Tigers 57-54, but fatigue wasn't too big of an issue for Keller.
"I tried to sub a little bit early to give them a little oxygen in the first half," he said. "I have a lot of faith in these kids. They're tough minded, and I felt they would do whatever they needed to do to hang in there and get the job done."
The Eagles were led by senior Greg Heban's 26 points, which included hitting five of the seven three-pointers he took.
On Whitko's side, freshman Logan Irwin hit 5 of 8 treys on his way to a game-high 29 points.
"Hopefully, they say they want to get back here," Rob Irwin said. "That's how you hope it works. I hope now, we become a basketball community again. Bottom line is, you have to put time in during the summer, like these kids have done."
The Whitko season ended with a 19-6 mark and loses three seniors, including starter Kaden Krull and reserves Ryan Bumbaugh and Todd Reed.
