The Delaware Blue Coats welcomed the Detroit Pistons' G League affiliate, Motor City Cruise, to town for a Saturday evening showdown ahead of the incoming snowstorm. An undermanned Blue Coats fought for as long as they could, but the Cruise were better in every facet tonight.
Delaware was without MarJon Beauchamp, Marcus Bagley, DeAndre Williams, and Igor Milicic, who all missed the game with varying leg injuries, and Johni Broome was missing for most of the first half as well.
"It was tough," said guard Kennedy Chandler. "I don't think we made that many threes today. We usually have MarJon out there, who can shoot. Malcolm (Hill) not having to do too much work caused those guys free him up to make threes. I feel like he was working a little bit today. Them doubling Broome, we got new guys like Cam (Young), Amniu (Mohammed) usually not playing as much minutes, and Kellen Tynes as well. Next man up, we just have to figure this out, and hopefully everybody else gets healthy."
The first quarter was about two people who had polar opposite starts to the game: Wendell Moore Jr. of the Cruise for the better and the Blue Coats' Johni Broome for the worse. Moore started the scoring by canning a three-pointer, and he did not stop there. He scored 12 points in the opening frame on a perfect 4-4 shooting from the field and put in his charity stripe shots, too.
On the other end of the spectrum was Johni Broome, who began the game by putting up a runner that was so far off the mark that it would have been recorded as an assist had Drew Cisse scored after catching it. His touch on the inside completely evaded him. He shot 0-7 in the quarter, trying to do a little too much to see the ball go in. He would score his first points on a 1-for-2 free throw down the stretch, but his shot attempt leading to such looked like it was blocked cleanly and called incorrectly by the refs.
"Their big game plan was to sink the paint with defenders and make it crowded, and just be physical with him," said head coach JP Clark regarding Johni Broome's rough start. "They got some big guys over there with Tolu Smith, size and physicality. Their game plan was effective early, just packing the paint."
Kennedy Chandler was the only reliable scoring threat for the home team early on, and without his nine points in the first, the Blue Coats would have found themselves in a ditch. In a fitting end to the quarter, Johni Broome had all day to load up a wide-open shot from deep, and promptly clanked it. The Cruise would carry a 34-27 lead into the second quarter.
The story of the second quarter revolved around the same two people. Wendell Moore Jr continued his offensive assault, and Johni Broome finally got himself going down the back half. But before Broome figured it out, the Cruise would build on their lead early in the quarter thanks to a few more bad misses and blocks from him.
Moore checked back into the game and picked up right where he left off in the first. He would continue his first half perfection, hitting all of his shots again in the second and went into halftime with 26 points.
When Broome finally hit his first shot from the field, the entire halfcourt opened up for him. He shot a much more respectable 4-8 in the second quarter and put in 10 points, finishing through traffic and dunking the ball twice through a much more athletic Motor City frontcourt, which to that point had been swallowing him up. He erased some of the bad from the first quarter and a half, and allowed the Blue Coats to scratch to a manageable deficit before heading into the locker rooms, trailing 63-52.
"As the game progressed, we just did a better job moving him around and then finding him in the paint," Clark said about how they got Broome going down the stretch of the first half. "Shifting their defense, that is something we can try to build on."
The Blue Coats started the third quarter hot on the back of Johni Broome, who picked up right where he left off to end the second. He got fouled on a three-point attempt, missed the 1-for-3 free throw, Motor City was called for a lane violation, and Broome made the retry that would cut the Cruise's lead to eight points. Unfortunately, the good mojo would not last.
Wendell Moore Jr would stop the Delaware run by hitting another bucket. Tolu Smith then began to impose his will down low to complement him. When Moore hit another three-ball to bring himself to 31 points on a perfect 10-10 shooting, it felt like all the wind had been taken out of the Blue Coats' sails. They completely let go of the rope, getting out-worked and out-hustled on both ends of the floor. After Broome cut the lead to eight, the Blue Coats got outscored by 15 points the rest of the quarter. Motor City led 101-78 after the third.
With the game all but decided, the attention turned to Wendell Moore Jr's perfection watch. He hit another three followed by a reverse layup to get himself to 38 points on 12-12 shooting, but missed a bunny that probably should have been called a double-dribble. While he may not have ended with the perfect shooting night, he did pour in 40 points with five assists and was the best player on the floor. The Cruise would win by a final score of 133-119, bringing the Blue Coats' regular season record to 6-8.
The Blue Coats do not play again until Friday, when they will travel west and get some much-needed warmth and sunshine as they take on the Valley Suns from Tempe, Arizona. Tipoff is set for 9 p.m.
