High school basketball: Delta wins battle of No. 1s

DELTA — It's always hard to know how much importance one should — or shouldn't — assign to preseason basketball games in December.

However, it was pretty obvious from the opening tip of Delta's nonregion tilt with Manti Wednesday evening that this one meant more than just a run-of-the-mill preseason victory.

Both teams are ranked No. 1 in their respective classifications and entered with unblemished 5-0 records. Many of the Delta and Manti players have been squaring off against one another since they were in seventh grade, and, on top of that, the squads matched up pretty well with one another.

"It was kind of a pressure game," said Delta center Jaren Jeffery.

And despite nearly collapsing late, the Rabbits more than flexed their muscles in the hotly contested environment.

Delta of Class 3A held Manti's talented offense to just 16 points in the first half, and — having led by double-digits for most of the contest — it simply survived down the stretch en route to a 50-47 win over Manti of Class 2A inside the Delta Palladium.

"I thought defensively we laxed a little bit coming down the stretch, (but) I thought the defense in the first half was probably the thing that was the difference," said Delta coach Jared Smith. "You hold somebody to 16 points ... as good a shooters as (we) are, I still think defense is what's gonna win us ball games."

Delta had played and beaten some pretty good teams in its previous five wins, but Smith said that Wednesday's encounter against Manti was "by far the best team we've played so far."

For more than three quarters, Delta controlled the Templars on both ends of the court. However, after trailing 43-28 with 6:39 remaining, Manti mounted a furious rally to make things awfully exciting.

Behind Tylan Jackson and Nick Brown, Manti outscored Delta 20-9 in the fourth quarter. David Hugentobler made 1 of 2 free throws to pull the Templars to within two points with 9.9 seconds to go, but Delta's Josh Eliason made a free throw at the other end and Hugentobler missed a subsequent three-pointer at the buzzer.

"We got a little bit out of place there at the end, but we just kept fightin' and fightin'," said Smith.

Delta senior Kurt Nielson scored eight of his team-high 12 points in the first half to give the Rabbits a 10-point lead at halftime. Josh Eliason and Spencer Stoddard each added 10 points, and Jeffery, who had several blocked shots, chipped in with nine.

Meanwhile, Jackson led offensively Manti with 16 points.

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