Pioneers Get Huge Road Victory

Flint, MI – Back on January 20, the Delta Men's basketball team suffered a tough home loss to the Mott Bears 85-79. Wednesday night, the Pioneers got some revenge. Winning five of their last seven games, the Delta Pioneers used that momentum and got a dominating road win, 70-59.

With the win, the Pioneers move to 9-5 in the MCCAA East and 9-17 overall. The Pioneers now find themselves tied for second place with the Wayne County Cougars and 2.5 games behind first place Schoolcraft.

"The key tonight was our balanced attack," said Pioneer Head Coach Carlos McMath. "We outscored them 24-10 in bench points. I am very happy to see us get production from a lot of different guys."

After a back and forth start to the game, the Pioneers began to take control with nine minutes left in the first half. A layup by Jonathon Swift and four straight points by Manny Dosanjh made the score 20-12. The lead was pushed to eleven when Swift made a layup and was fouled. On the free throw, he got his own rebound and put it back in to make the score 30-19. The Pioneers would eventually take a 38-24 lead into halftime.

Coming out of the half, the Pioneers kept building on their lead and a layup by Devin Smith made it 48-28 at the sixteen minute mark. Back to back three pointers by Tyler Ellis and Mason VanPamel gave the Pioneers their largest lead of the night 58-32. The Bears would chip away at the Pioneer lead but in the end wouldn't be able to get it below double digits.

"While we still have things we can continually work on, we have two regular season games left and are in a position to control our own destiny in the league standings. Every game from here on out is a playoff game."

Leading the way for the Pioneers was Jonathon Swift with 13 points. Devin Smith added 10 points and Tyler Ellis had 9 points and 8 rebounds. Martel Handley chipped in with 9 points and Jovon Thomason added 7 assists.

The Pioneers are back in action on Saturday afternoon when they host the Schoolcraft Ocelots. The Ocelots beat the Pioneers 94-65 in their first meeting. Game time is 3:00 at Pioneer gymnasium.