Tower Hill ends Seaford’s tourney run with 56-25 win

Ben Heck
Posted 3/9/21

WILMINGTON — It was brief, but for a moment the Seaford High boys’ basketball program led in a state quarterfinal game.

After scoring the first basket of the night, the No. 5 Blue …

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Tower Hill ends Seaford’s tourney run with 56-25 win

Posted

WILMINGTON — It was brief, but for a moment the Seaford High boys’ basketball program led in a state quarterfinal game.

After scoring the first basket of the night, the No. 5 Blue Jays led for 20 seconds before Tower Hill School knocked down a three-pointer and never looked back.

The No. 4 Hillers cruised to the 56-25 victory over Seaford in Tuesday night’s DIAA state quarterfinals showdown.

But Seaford (13-3), making the program’s first quarterfinal appearance since 1999, hopes this is just a small taste of what’s to come — especially considering this year’s squad didn’t have any seniors and will return all five starters next year.

“First, I want to say congratulations to Tower Hill,” Seaford coach Vince Evans said. “They have a really good team, they had a really good game plan, I wish them the best of luck moving forward. Our kids, we had a good run, unfortunately tonight our youth showed, which can happen. Our guys did a great job all year long, fought through adversity and we stuck together through the good and bad times.”

The Hillers (12-2) move on to Thursday night’s state semifinals at No. 1 Sanford School. It marks the program’s first ever trip to the semifinal round. The Hillers hope to knock off the 2019 state champions for a trip to the finals.

Seven different players scored points for Tower Hill, led by senior captain Donoven Mack’s game-high 21 points. Sophomore guard Dean Shepherd recorded 13 points while senior forward Derrick Deadwyler added nine.

Junior Tyrese Fortune scored a team-high 12 points for the Blue Jays, including 5-of-6 from the free throw line, while sophomore Brent Ricketts added four points.

Through the first eight minutes, the Blue Jays were right there in it. Even after Tower Hill broke out on a quick 7-2 run and forced an early timeout just 1:49 into the game, Seaford battled back before trailing 15-9 by the end of the quarter.

Tower Hill used a quick 11-4 run to jump ahead 26-12 just 3:06 into the second quarter and took a 30-16 advantage into the halftime break.

Tower Hill’s size, athleticism and experience made it difficult in the second half, especially under the basket, as Mack scored the first nine points of the third period. The Hillers went on a 15-0 run to open the quarter before Fortune hit a pair of free throws at the 1:45 mark for Seaford’s only two points of the period.

With seven fourth quarter points, the Blue Jays put up just nine second half points as the Hillers cruised to the victory.

“We started the year not knowing whether we were going to have games,” Evans said. “We went from maybe playing 18 games, to 14 games, to 12 games, to playing with masks on, with fans, without fans. Our guys did a good job coming to practice every day, working hard.”

Evans, a member of the 1997 Seaford High squad which won the state championship over Newark High, is excited to see the progress the program has made over the last couple years.

His ‘97 team, which also featured Andre Matthews, one of his assistant coaches this season, still marks the last time the Blue Jays made a semifinal appearance. But this year’s team helped bring the community together, much like those championship teams from the ’90s.

“Our program has been down a long time,” he said. “We started the turnaround last year, this year they took it to another level. We look forward to the future … We told the kids, ‘keep your head up,’ because I don’t think they realize what they did for the community. Everybody loves them, I think the whole town is behind them and I’m sure they’ll be looking forward to next year.”

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