Midwest City (7-0) and Del City (4-4) boys’ basketball weren’t quite feeling the rivalry spark albeit for different reasons. 

“Well there would be rivalry especially if we were playing at night time instead of Saturday afternoon,” said Midwest City Head Coach DeWayne Bradley. “This environment kind of lessens it because it’s Saturday afternoon.”

Del City Head Coach Tim Stogsdill had a different reason for downplaying the rivalry.

“No, we go into this ball game just like any other ball game. They don’t give out any gold balls here in January,” said Stogsdill.

Still, neither coach could deny the kids had a bit of extra motivation and comfort when 6A’s No. two ranked Midwest City Bombers hooked up with 5A’s number five ranked Del City Eagles.

The Bombers, fresh off their Mid-Del Holiday Invitational victory, traveled back to John Smith Fieldhouse to defeat the Eagles 64-43.

It was an on and off day for the Eagles who held up well against the aggressive full court pressure of Midwest City more so in the first half.

However, the Bombers controlled the first quarter with a 7-2 advantage on the boards leading to a couple of extra shots. Midwest City got 5 more shots off than Del City going 5-9 to Del City’s 2-4 and taking a 12-5 lead in the second.

Midwest City senior guard Cedric Fair hit back-to-back 3-point opportunities to open the quarter and boost the Bomber lead up to 10 points.

“Cedric has always had good games against Del City so that wasn’t surprising to me,” said Bradley of Fair’s emergence. “He probably had his career highs against Del City for some reason so those two 3’s he hit pretty close together were pretty big for us.”

Then, the tide turned for Midwest City.

Eagles’ junior guard Breiman Alexander led a 9-0 run with 8 points and an assist to cut the Midwest City lead down to 18-17.

Meanwhile, Bomber forward Caleb Corprew hit severe foul trouble due in large part to a hanging on the rim technical (also counts as a personal foul in high school) that slipped the coaches mind.

“Losing Caleb was big and that was probably our mistake missing that the technical foul was also a foul, “said Bradley.

Yet, Midwest City was still able to hold off Del City with help from back-up forward senior forward Louis Parker. He poured in 7 points with Fair adding in 4 more to extend the lead back out to 29-21 at halftime.

Fair led all scorers at the half with 12 points 3 rebounds and 2 steals going 3-5 from the 3-points line.

Midwest City wasted no time out of halftime scoring two quick buckets off of Del City miscues and bumping the lead up to 11 points.

“They made a little run the first three minutes,” said Stogsdill. “We got our heads down and we didn’t respond. We got back to taking quick shots.”

Del City senior guard Brett Cannon held Midwest City off with 6 points and an assist to shave the Midwest City lead down to 39-31.

Unfortunately for Del City, they would never get that close again. Midwest City senior guard Torey Noel led a 9-2 run with 6 points to reinforce the lead back to 48-33.

Another 8-2 run to start the fourth quarter put the game away for good as Midwest City went on to win 64-43.

“They’re one of the top teams in 6A for a reason,” said Stogsdill of the Midwest City poise. “They’ve got kids that have been there. When they’ve played for three out of the last four state championships, it makes a difference.”

Noel’s big second half made him the top scorer for Midwest City with 17 points (15 in the second half). Fair chipped in with 14 points and 5 rebounds.

“Obviously from the guard standpoint, [Noel] does a really good job, “said Bradley. “It’s amazing how well he gets to the rim and scores against people”

Cannon led the way for Del City with 17 points of his own and 4 rebounds.

Del City continued its shooting clump with an 11-32 night from the field thanks to an active Midwest City defense, but Coach Stogsdill knows it’s not about now.

“If we can stay positive and we can understand the long run, we’re playing for February and March. We play a 6A schedule. Every night we have to show up,” said Stogsdill. “We just got to put 32 minutes of basketball together.”

Del City travels to the Bartlesville Invitational starting Jan. 9 against 6A Broken Arrow through Jan. 11. Midwest City will also be traveling in a tournament.