SECOND CHANCE POINTS … Hilltop big man Micah Rossman tries to put back a rebound.
PHOTOS BY REBEKAH DELL / THE VILLAGE REPORTER
DRIVE AND DISH … Alex York looks to pass the ball after driving the Hilltop defense.
By: Joe Blystone
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
publisher@thevillagereporter.com
WEST UNITY (December 13, 2025) – Hilltop harassed visiting Delta into 10 first quarter turnovers that put the Panthers into a 16-point hole that they never could claw all the way out of and went on to hang up a 59-47 victory to even their record at 2-2 on the season.
“We really worked in the last week of getting ourselves in position where our defense drives our offense,” Cadet coach Connor English explained of the big first quarter.
“We figured that out against Burr Oak (a 67-61 Cadet win), figured out how to do it, and we worked on it the last couple days in practice, and it showed.”
“When we can force turnovers and get out and go we are at our best and I think it showed tonight with 10 turnovers and 24 points.
Especially against an NWOAL school that has been pretty darn good and had our number for the last 15 years.”
Two Micah Rossman triples, along with another Rossman hoop inside on a Brennan Dempsey feed put Hilltop up 13-8 just past the halfway mark of the first.
Then, fueled by half a dozen Delta miscues in the last 3:39, the Cadets used an 11-0 scoring burst to run out to a 24-8 lead.
Zane Burdine dished to Rossman for a layup, Drew Bailey buried a triple, Rossman stuck back his own miss for his 12th point of the quarter, and Scott Bowers capped the salvo with a layup with 13 seconds left.
Alex York’s basket got the Panthers within 14 at the end of the first and started a Delta comeback.
Bailey’s rebound basket off his own shot with 6:16 to go in the second kept the Cadets ahead by 16 at 28-12, but that was the last Hilltop score for nearly four minutes.
In that span Delta used their own 11-0 spurt to chop the deficit to five. Ashton Alig’s triple from the corner started the run, then York putback a Panther miss to make it 28-17.
Vincent Martinez’s drive was followed by a pair of York hoops, the last a weaving drive with 3:35 left in the half to cut the Hilltop advantage to five.
York’s triple at the 2:16 mark got the Panthers as close as they would get at 30-26 before Bailey’s pull up jumper and a layup off the break pushed the Cadets up 35-26.
“He’s on a heckuva roll,” English stated on the play of his 6’4 senior guard. “The last three games, the whole season really, he went for 20 against Northwood. He got sick against Stryker and got shut down.
“He went for 34 against Burr Oak, I don’t know how many he had tonight, but when he lets the defense control everything it really puts him in a groove and when he sees the ball go in the basket he is hard to guard.”
York’s score off a turnover early in the third, then his dish to Gary Valentine for a layup kept the Panthers within 42-35 with 3:41 left but Bailey and Austin Verdin hit back-back three-pointers to bounce the Cadets into a 48-35 lead.
Anthony Jiannuzzi’s triple at 5:28 of the fourth gave Hilltop their largest second half bulge at 56-42. Delta forced 10 Cadet turnovers in the fourth but couldn’t slice into the deficit because of 2-13 shooting in the quarter.
The Panthers shot 9-29 in the second half, and just 20-59 for the game. Hilltop was 20-50 for the night after going 9-17 in the first quarter.
Both teams had major problems controlling the basketball as Delta committed 26 turnovers, while Hilltop had 25.
Bailey led Hilltop with 22 points. Rossman scored all 14 of his in the first half while Jiannuzzi added 13. York was the only Panther in double figures with 23.