The Darlington varsity boys basketball team played their first region game at home against Mt. Paran last Friday the final score was 46-26. Patrick Shelley led the charge with 16 points followed by D’Marion Floyd and Asa Shepard each scoring nine.

The focus for the Tigers in this game was getting stops on defense. They held Mt. Paran to 15 points in the first half and 26 in the whole game.

”It just goes to show we played on defensive end if you hold a team to 26 points it doesn’t matter who you’re playing,” head coach Nathan West said. “We didn’t shoot well from outside we missed a lot of easy baskets the refs kinda let us play in games like that you really have to buckle down and guard and I think that’s what kinda got us over the hump in the 2nd half.” 

At half time West challenged his team to get more stops on defense and forward DJ Johnson commented on the Tigers defense

“Getting stops on the defensive end we held them to 15 points in the first half which is pretty good. We held them to 26 points. Normally we are not a second half team but tonight we proved we can get stops on the defensive end,” West said.

Johnson was a big part of the tiger defense holding down the paint for the Tigers collected several blocks and Quin McClarity also contributed several steals to make a big night for the Tigers.

The Tigers struggled early with their shot making but they made up for it on the defensive end.

“We didn’t shoot the ball extremely well. We missed a lot of easy layups, but I think we guarded pretty well. We talked about at half time that we have to keep guarding. If we keep playing hard on the defensive end the offense side will come, so really, adjustment-wise, we just kinda stuck to who we are and had faith in our system,” West said.

The Tigers are 1-0 in region play and 11-2 overall this year.