LOW POST OFFENSE … Pettisville’s Ryan Bishop goes for a layup in a season opening win at Delta.
PHOTOS BY RACHEL NAGEL / THE VILLAGE REPORTER
DRIBBLE DRIVE … Delta guard Vincent Martinez penetrates the middle of the Pettisville defense in their season opener on November 28.
By: Joe Blystone
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
publisher@thevillagereporter.com
DELTA (November 28, 2025) – After Pettisville lost a 12-point first-half lead and fell behind with 4:20 left in the game, the Blackbirds’ Jack Leppelmeier went from basketball player to superhero.
That’s because the 6’3 senior guard scored 10 of the last 11 points of the game and grabbed three rebounds and blocked a shot on the defensive end to vault the ‘Birds to a 52-41 victory over the scrappy Delta Panthers in the season opener for both teams.
“Late in the game, obviously, we want the ball in Jack’s hands,” Blackbird coach Brian Leppelmeier said.
“They wanted to extend, and we knew what they wanted to do defensively, so we got it in his hands, and hopefully he got to the rim and get a quality shot because we were shooting ourselves in the foot into the middle of the fourth quarter.”
“We were getting jumpy with the basketball, trying to hit these home run passes, and we didn’t need to do that.
“We were acting like we were trailing by 15 when we were ahead, but late we got some big rebounds, kept them to one shot, and executed getting to the foul line.”
Pettisville pretty much had its way in the first quarter, running out to an 11-point bulge. Leppelmeier opened the game with a deep triple, then dished inside to Josh Morris for buckets.
Creighton Aeschliman found Morris for a third layup, then kicked inside-out to the junior guard for a three-pointer for the last bucket of the quarter that gave Pettisville an 18-7 lead.
Pettisville maintained that 11-point lead in the second, despite a pair of Panther triples by Alex York.
Zander Hogrefe’s three-pointer gave Pettisville their largest lead at 27-15 with 2:42 left in the half, then after York hit the second of the above-mentioned triples, Leppelmeier nailed a fadeaway jumper to put Pettisville up 29-18 at the break.
“Tip your hat to (Delta) coach (Matt) Brighton and his staff,” Leppelmeier expressed. “They run that zone very well, and I think our guys attacked very well in the first half.
“Even our JV team tonight, we attacked the zone very well. We hit some back cuts early and got some baskets.”
Alex Galvin’s jumper kept Pettisville ahead at 31-20 with 6:21 to go in the third, but for the next 11 minutes, Pettisville went stale from the field, going 2-13 from the floor in that span.
The Panthers took advantage and began to chip away. York hit his fourth three-pointer of the game, then dished low to Gunnar Avery for baskets to chop the Blackbird lead to 31-27.
Leppelmeier found Ryan Bishop for a three-point play, but Avery scored on a putback, and Vinnie Martinez canned a pull-up jumper to keep Delta within 38-34 heading into the fourth.
Martinez dumped the ball inside twice, once to York and the second to Avery, for baskets to tie the game with 6:01left, then banged home a three-ball with 4:20 to go that gave Delta their first lead of the game.
“They made some adjustments (defensively),” said Leppelmeier. We didn’t do a very good job adjusting to their adjustments. We tried to force it and got balls batted around.
“In the first half, we were able to hit some things right away; in the second, we needed to reverse the basketball, and we didn’t do a very good job.”
Galvin answered at the 3:01 mark from the top of the key to knot the game at 41-41, then after a Panther miss, Leppelmeier took over.
First, the Blackbirds’ go-to guy powered in a turnaround jumper that became a three-point play to regain a Pettisville lead with 2:01 on the clock.
Then, after a Panther miss, Leppelmeier crossed a defender at the foul line and got to the rim for a layup to make it a five-point game.
Leppelmeier then blocked a Panther shot, cleaned the glass off Panther misses twice, and hit 5-6 from the foul line to put the game away.
“It’s always good to get a win, especially on the road. Anytime you have to play a quality zone defense early on, it’s always tough,” Leppelmeier explained of the game.
“Our guys started off well, and again, it’s the first game, there’s things we need to work on. We weren’t getting bodies on guys, and I think one of our biggest challenges will be on the glass.
“Delta was bigger than us, and if we were even with them, they were going to get the boards. We have to get back into guys and check people out.
For the night, Leppelmeier ended up with 22 to lead all scorers. Morris added 14 for Pettisville. York paced Delta with 14 while Martinez had 11.
After shooting 67% in the first quarter, Pettisville was just 10-30 the rest of the way. Delta shot only 15-44 but got back into the game in the third when the Panthers went 6-10 from the field.
Pettisville had 11 turnovers while Delta had 14.
PETTISVILLE (52) – Leppelmeier 22; Galvin 5; Aeschliman 2; Morris 14; Hastings 0; Z. Hogrefe 3; Bishop 6; Totals: 14-4-12 – 52
DELTA (41) – Martinez 11; Alig 2; Valentine 0; Lohman 0; York 14; Lintermoot 2; Friess 4; Mazurowski 0; Avery 8; Totals: 9-6-5 – 41
PHS 18 11 9 14 – 52
DHS 7 11 16 7 – 41