journey to 351

#52 of 351   14% complete

I stayed overnight at my cousin Brian’s house who lives about 45 miles west of Philadelphia. Brain accompanied me to this game which is his first in Operation 351. He is a sports aficionado and volunteered to serve up his home as the alpha base for all future games in Pennsylvania. Welcome aboard Brian!

Delaware State is across the street from the Dover Raceway which hosts NASCAR events.
As you can tell, we were not quite sure if this was the entrance to the arena.

This was my first visit to a primarily black populated school. I did expect to see a rousing pep band with an energetic cheer and dance leading squad. Sadly, there was none of that tonight. There was also not much of a student section represented either. However, what made up for it all were the adults probably most of them parents from both sides dancing and cheering on their teams. There was a gentleman from Delaware State working really hard to get the crowd involved.

As someone said on Twitter after I posted a picture, “Yikes that’s a Div 1 gym?”. I replied that I have seen smaller like St. Francis of Brooklyn.  Both teams have horrible win and loss records but it was one exciting game. As I told Brian afterwards, this particular game does not warrant a speck on the college basketball universe but in itself, it was a very exciting game to watch between two evenly matched teams. I was very glad to have witnessed this event.

Yes there is one Caucasian ball player on the court. His name is Artem Tavakalyan #34 from Moscow Russia. I wonder if he knew when he signed up that that he was playing on a …. never mind. He is the leading scorer for Delaware State but you have to wonder about the dynamics of a Russian playing with a black college team.

Both of these teams play in the Mid Eastern Athletic Conference joining other black colleges like Hampton and Morgan State from the mid Atlantic region.

So here is the exciting part! The score is tied at 60 with 10 seconds left. South Carolina State in bounds the ball.  Senior guard Patrell Rogers races down the sideline and launches a side leaning 30 foot three point shot to win the game. The Hornet fans were in a state of shock. It was a fitting end to a hard fought game from both sides.

That’s a South Carolina State proud mother celebrating!

Next game:  Southern at Mississippi Valley State         01/15/18