Del City boys basketball traveled to Bartlesville last weekend where they took home fifth place in the Conoco Phillips/Arvest Invitational.

It was good news and bad news for the Eagles on this trip.

The bad news was Del City senior leader and lead scorer Brett Cannon went down in day one with a high ankle sprain. Cannon is out with the injury indefinitely.

The good news is they found others to step up collectively and formed the beginnings of an identity. Something, Del City Head Coach Tim Stogsdill has been looking for all year.

Day one of the tournament will go down as one the Eagles would probably rather forget. Del City didn’t have energy from the jump and Del City Assistant Coach Gary Harper could feel in it in warm-ups.

On top of losing Cannon that night, the Eagles went on to lose the game 75-62 to the Broken Arrow Tigers, ranked eighth in 6A.

It was a wakeup call, according to Harper, who said the team made a concerted effort to change next day’s warm-ups. The change paid off.

Del City continued its streak of beating all of its 5A opponents by taking out the Ardmore Tigers. Harper had challenged guard Breiman Alexander and forward Trent King to score 25 between them to make up for Cannon’s loss.

They took the challenge and passed as Alexander, who has played well but inconsistently, dropped in 15 points and King added 10 more. Davion Freeman also scored 15 points in the win.

The momentum carried into Saturday’s game for fifth place. Del City played another 6A opponent in the Enid Plainsmen.

This game, Alexander and King didn’t meet their goal but Xavier Hunter and Ahnte Harkey were there to pick them up. Hunter scored 22 with Harkey adding in 12 as the Eagles finished up the tournament with a 53-47 win over Enid.

The Eagles might look back on this tourney as a turning point in their season. If Cannon comes back (which remains to be seen), he has others who can factor into the equation. Harper also thinks the defense was much improved in the tournament. These skills carried over into their Tuesday night matchup with Westmore.