ABOVE THE RIM … Evergreen’s Quinn Eisel slams home a bucket in the NWOAL finale at home with Delta.
PHOTOS BY JACOB KESSLER / THE VILLAGE REPORTER
LEADING THE WAY … Alex York (above) had a team-high 20 points as Delta got the win at Evergreen, 64-55. VIEW 165 PHOTOS OF THIS CONTEST FOR FREE AT WWW.THEVILLAGEREPORTER.COM
By: Joe Blystone
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
publisher@thevillagereporter.com
METAMORA (February 20, 2026) – Delta seemed to hit every tough shot at the right time and come up with every loose ball as they closed their regular season with a 64-55 win at Evergreen.
“We have put together a lot of good quarters,” Delta coach Matt Brighton stated. “I don’t know if this is our best game we played, I think it’s just that we played to our potential tonight.”
“They missed a lot of shots but it’s because we contested as well as we could. “We knew what they were going to bring, we know they like to shoot the three, we wanted to extend and make it tough on them, and we wanted to hold them to one shot.”
“We did hit some big shots – shots we make every day in practice – and it was just bringing that over to game-time.”
Evergreen grabbed an early 10-2 lead thanks to a pair of Quinn Eisel baskets and two steal-and-scores from Chris Shrader and Troy Manz.
From that point, the Vikings hit just 11 of their next 39 shots. Alex York scooped up a loose ball for a score, then converted a three-point play to bring the Panthers back to a 14-12 deficit.
York’s baseline jumper knotted the game at the 14-all with 40 seconds left in the first, but Shrader and George Allendorf knocked down triples in the last 30 seconds to give Evergreen a 20-14 lead.
While Evergreen was in the doldrums of a 3-15 second quarter, York and Ashton Alig were hitting every shot they took, scoring 15 points between them, bringing the Panthers from six down to a 29-24 lead with 3:17 left in the half.
“Two senior leaders, two captains that put in a lot of time in the off-season,” said Brighton of Alig and York. “It was really good to see them do well against a really good league opponent.”
Manz’s triple got Evergreen close at 29-27 but York chucked a three-ball that banked in, then found Kade Lintermoot for a three-point play that gave the Panthers a 35-28 halftime lead.
While the Vikings were shooting 38 percent in the half, Delta was on fire, knocking down shots at a 53 percent clip.
The Panthers stayed hot in the third. Vincent Martinez nailed two long range three-balls that gave Delta their biggest lead at 43-31 with 5:55 left in the third.
Shrader found Allendorf for back-to-back hoops that helped cut the 12-point margin in half but York’s wing jumper with 41 ticks left made it 47-37 after the third.
Manz hit Allendorf and Will Ruetz for buckets early in the fourth that shaved the Delta lead to 49-43 but a Martinez floater and his score off a turnover got it to 60-50 with 1:56 left.
Eisel’s bucket and an Allendorf triple got Evergreen back to 60-55 with 1:11 to go. Evergreen then forced a pair of Delta turnovers but missed two layups and the putback attempts off of both that would’ve sliced the Panther lead to one, and the Vikings would get no closer.
York led the Panthers, who shot 54 percent for the game, with 20. Martinez had 15 and Alig 12. Evergreen’s Allendorf had 22 to lead all scorers and Eisel had 12.
Delta (5-17, 2-5 NWOAL) plays Swanton in the Division V sectional semifinal on Wednesday. Evergreen (12-10, 2-5 NWOAL) travels to second-seeded Gibsonburg for a Division VI sectional title game on Friday.
DELTA (64) – Martinez 15; Alig 12; Valentine 2; Lohman 2; York 20; Lintermoot 7; Mazurowski 2; Avery 4; Totals: 22-5-5 – 64
EVERGREEN (55) – Manz 7; Ruetz 4; Q. Eisel 12; Allendorf 22; Bolger 2; Fisher 0; Mossing 0; Gillen 0; Shrader 8; Totals: 18-5-4 – 55
DHS 14 21 12 17 – 64
EHS 20 8 9 18 – 55