BERLIN – Stephen Decatur erased a six point half time deficit to come back and beat Snow Hill 55-51 on Tuesday evening. The Seahawks, playing without team leader Tre Foreman, who suffered a concussion during the previous night’s loss at Wicomico, finally got into an offensive rhythm in the second half. 

“It was our first game without Tre Foreman. When you lose a guy like that it’s huge and when you lose him last night and have no time to prepare makes it doubly tough,” said SDHS coach Mark Engle. “Tonight, as the game settled in, I noticed we gained confidence offensively without Tre there.”

Decatur started the third quarter on an 11-5 run to tie the game at 30 and then took the lead for good on a three-pointer by Jesse Engle. 

“At half time we talked about being more decisive with the basketball on the perimeter and then penetrating the gaps and dishing and being more effective with the ball,” coach Engle said. “They came out and did that in the second half.”

In the fourth Decatur kept scoring just enough to keep Snow Hill scrambling and pulled away to 43-38 with baskets by Matt Swistak and Dre Smith. After Engle hit a shot in the lane to put Decatur up six with under two minutes left, the Eagles resorted to fouling Seahawks. 

But Drakar Purnell, Swistak and Engle kept making free throws in the final minute to seal the win for Decatur.  

“We talked about being mentally tough and finishing and winning close games at home.” Engle said. “We want to win every close game. We want to win every home game. Tonight we finished, won the close game and defended the home court.”