The Blue Lights College men’s basketball team shook off the holiday cobwebs in the second half but could not catch SUNY Delhi, falling to the Broncos 79-68 Thursday night in the opening game of the Beach Bash Classic in Hialeah, Florida.
The Thoroughbreds (3-10) fell behind 51-33 in the first half to the Broncos (9-7), ranked 16th in the latest USCAA Division 2 poll. However, BLC fought back after intermission, led by Djuan Coleman, and outscored Delhi in the second half before running out of gas.
“We played great,” said head coach Zach Hendricks. “We played a team who is ranked in the top 16 in the USCAA D2. We were down by 7 with eight minutes to go and could not finish, but we played great.”
Jorge Garcia led the Thoroughbreds with 13 points. Djuan Coleman scored all 12 of his points in the second half. Richard Campbell added 11. The game marked the BLC debut for James Evans and Michael Maxwell, who scored 6 and 4 points respectively for the Thoroughbreds. Jake Slobe came off the bench to lead Delhi with 18.
The path gets no easier for Blue Lights on Friday. Next up for the Herd is host Florida National, ranked 2nd in the USCAA Division 1. Game time is 7:30 pm.
