Four teams continued on their path through the 2012 Eastern Pennsylvania Conference playoffs on Feb. 18 to advance to the championship the following day. Delaware, Philadelphia, Stevens, and Bucks all proved to be worthy of claiming the title, but only two would remain after tonight.

Philadelphia Community College dismantled Stevens College in the earlier game and set the stage for the winner of the #4 ranked Bucks Centurions (8-7) and the #1 ranked Delaware Pride (19-2) to meet them in the title game the following day.

The game kept fans on the edge of their seats for much of the night, but it was Delaware who emerged victorious in the end. Delaware Pride player Domineek Owens scored 17 points in a 66-57 thriller over the Bucks Centurions that ended their season.

Point guard Emmanuel Pittman and Tariq Benn lead their team with 20 and 17 points in a valiant effort that was echoed by the rest of the team as well.

The defense was strong by both teams in the early going, but Bucks was able to work their way through the pride defense methodically and jumped out to a 9-2 lead. When the Pride did get shots at the net fate rolled the ball the other way.

After that the Pride clamped down on defense that forced the Centurions into some sloppy turnovers. The Centurions seemed to have some real trouble deciphering the Pride defense in different instances throughout the night that caused them to force passes that were not there. The Centurions did show some real tenacity however, by battling for loose balls and rebounds that contributed to them leading for much of the game.

The Pittman and Benn show allowed the Centurions to get out to leads of 17-8 and 19-11, but the Pride made a late charge in the first half evening the score at 21 with five minutes left. The Centurions were on their heels and needed an answer. It was Benn, who answered on the next pocession with an emphatic dunk and then later Pittman, who hit a late 3 pointer to give the Centurions a 26-25 halftime lead.

The second half was a different story as the Pride had obvious momentum and soon took a 29-26 lead. Pittman fed Benn for a nice dunk on the next possession, but you could not help, but feel that the Pride was starting to pull away. Centurion guard Michael Desiderio squashed that theory by hitting a big 3 pointer to get the Centurions within one at 34-35.

The Centurions would take the lead on the next possession, but that was the last time they would lead in the game. The biggest story of the game for the Centurions besides the turnovers was the fact that they got into early foul trouble that would haunt them late in the game.

The constant foul shots seemed to slow the game down and the Pride started to look like the team that was #1 in the conference when the playoffs began. Questionable officiating also contributed to the game getting out of hand with the Pride leading 52-40 with seven minutes left.

The Centurions tried to keep up, but the Pride always had an answer and the final painful minutes ticked off the scoreboard.

The winning Head Coach of the Delaware Pride, Dwayne Saunders said afterwards, “We did not play intelligent at all that and struggled a lot of the time and we got the W, but we’ve played much better before.”

Sanders also had high praise for Centurion Head Coach Steve Coyne by saying, “Coach Coyne did a great job of showing us some things that they didn’t do in the season and it took us about 10 or 12 minutes into the first half before we were able to figure out what they were doing and then our guys were able to go out and execute in the second half.

Hats off to coach Coyne because he is a heck of a coach,” said Saunders.

Bucks Coach stood and faced the music afterwards and said, “We played pretty much the way we played all season with a lot of turnovers and mistakes and we just did not make our shots tonight and that hurt us.”

“We played a pretty good first half and even then our turnovers hurt us a lot. What we tried to do defensively was shut down their two main scorers that have hurt us in the past and we did, but the other guys stepped up in the second half,” said Coyne. “Unfortunately somebody has to win or lose in a game like this and we came up on the short end of it.”

One of the Pride players Khayyir Laws said on the game, “Um I think our game was a little off tonight sometimes we start out slow, but usually pick it up. In the first half we did not realize they were playing box in defense on us, but we were able to adjust at halftime.

Centurion center Tariq Benn said afterwards, “This is pretty much what happened the first time we played these guys and we just could not get it done tonight.”

A dejected Emmanuel Pittman talked calmly in the hallways of the locker room by saying, “We played tough, but they played tougher so the better team won. Once the pressure hit, we dialed it backed, while they kept the pressure on and we got lazy. They were feeding off their home crowd as well so when they would get hype they would mimic that.”