After going toe-to-toe in a high scoring affair for the majority of the night, the Wisconsin Herd came up with a pair of crucial defensive stops to edge out the Delaware 87ers late Monday night.
The Wisconsin Herd came away with a vital victory to keep pace of the Eastern Conference playoff race as they pushed past the Delaware 87ers Monday night, winning 127-123.
Signs of how the night would shake out started early as both teams got off to a solid scoring pace not long after the opening jump. While the Herd were able to separate themselves with a 14-7 run midway through the quarter, the 87ers closed the gap on them to trail by just three points after the first period.
Both teams ramped up their offensive pace all throughout the second quarter as putting in stout, engaged defense took a backseat at that stage in the game.
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It was the 87ers, though, that were able to get the better of the Herd in the period, outscoring them 40-34 and leading by three heading into half time.
That carried over out of the break as both the Herd and the 87ers traded baskets upon baskets for the bulk of the third quarter, so much so that the scoring margin didn’t change once the period wrapped up.
As it turns out, though, neither team could keep up their level of offensive play during the fourth quarter with scores for both teams coming fewer and far between as we ramped up to the end.
With the game shifting firmly to a defensive affair towards the final few minutes, the Herd got clutch buckets from both Joel Bolomboy and Ricky Ledo to hold a three-point lead with just over two minutes to go. But the 87ers were able to tie it up at 123, thanks to former Herd stand out James Young converting a free throw as well as a layup driving to the basket.
As time raced down with less than 30 seconds to go, Brandon Jennings came up with a huge poke and steal near the half court line, which he then put home with plenty of ease. For good measure, Jennings forced another turnover in a similar manner, this time with Kyle Casey picking up the loose ball to put home the score and give the Herd a comfortable cushion with a handful of seconds to go.
By garnering the win, the Herd now have a record of 20-23, leaving them ninth in the East and 2.5 games back of the sixth-placed Grand Rapids Drive.