Bobcats befuddle opposition

~ Delta's many weapons have been tough to stop during a 27-1 season.

The Delta girls basketball team fits together like a puzzle, with each piece adding its strengths to create the whole.

Junior guards Shea Smith and Kaci Menz are the top two scorers and provide Delta with two outside threats. Fellow junior Tiffany Amelunke leads the team in assists, freshman Jodi Menz is the team's top rebounder, and sophomore Ashley Deprow adds inside scoring along with an element of toughness to the team.

Throw in top reserve Kayla Seabaugh, a 5-foot-10 junior who averages 9.7 points a game, and a host of junior varsity players led by sophomores Sarah Keys and Alison Burger and you have a final four team.

The Bobcats sit at 27-1 and will play Leeton (29-1) in a Class 1 semifinal at 4:30 p.m. today at Mizzou Arena in Columbia, Mo. This will be Delta's first trip to the state final four since 2003.

"If we take each thing the kids can do, get them working hard with a good attitude, which they have, we feel we can be successful," Delta coach Randy White said.

Delta's players have played together for much of their lives. The only new starter on the team, freshman Jodi Menz, is Kaci Menz's younger sister.

"We get along really well, we're all really close," Deprow said.

Added Amelunke: "We grew up playing basketball together, and it really makes a big difference. On the court you can kind of know what we're going to do with each other. It helps a lot out there. We know how to communicate."

The Bobcats' only loss this season was a two-point decision against Class 4 Sikeston. Among its wins this season, Delta defeated Class 2 quarterfinalist Naylor and Class 3 district winner Kelly twice.

This year's success began with last year's quarterfinal loss to Chadwick, the eventual state champion.

"Last year, when we lost to Chadwick, we told each other we would get to the final four this year," Seabaugh said. "We saw the team we had coming up, what we had, and we knew it."

Delta got its revenge against Chadwick with a quarterfinal win to clinch the final four berth.

Now the Bobcats have a chance to make school history. No Delta team has won a state title, with a runner-up finish in 1980 and a third-place showing in 2003.

"These kids are old enough to remember that," White said in reference to 2003. "They were junior high-age. That's had a big impact on them. ... These kids want to be the first bunch to win it all."

In order to bring home their first state title, the Bobcats will have to go through a big test in Leeton. The Bulldogs start 6-1 Tia LaFavor, 6-2 Katie Drendel and three other players 5-8 or taller.

Delta is caming off a win against Chadwick, which started a pair of 6-footers inside. The pair managed 20 points against Delta, but Jodi Menz held Amanda Workman to seven points.

"I was really impressed with Jodi out there against the girl from Chadwick," White said. "She did a heck of a job in there. Jodi can guard."

Haley Stockton, a returning all-state guard, leads Leeton in scoring at 15.2 points a game. LaFavor averages more than 14 points a game. Drendel and LaFavor both average more than nine rebounds a game.

Seabaugh said Leeton's size will not intimidate the Bobcats.

"We ain't scared. We just have to keep our heads, don't be nervous," she said.

One thing Delta will have to do is stay out of foul trouble. Deprow, Seabaugh and Kaci Menz all fouled out in Saturday's win against Chadwick. All three committed their third fouls early in the second quarter.

Delta will counter Leeton's post combination with 5-9 Deprow and 5-9 Jodi Menz. Menz averages 8.4 rebounds a game and Deprow seven.

"We've got Kayla Seabaugh, Ashley Deprow, Jodi Menz, and Alison Burger can come in and do the job for us," White said. "Saturday, boy, we had to have every one of them."

Win or lose, the future looks bright for the Bobcats with no seniors on the roster. But White knows his team wants to take advantage of its current opportunity.

"I don't know how many teams, boys and girls, start five kids without any seniors and you think how they'll be back and they don't ever get back," White said. "That happens quite a bit. When you're presented with the opportunity, you'd better go with the mentality to take advantage of that opportunity."

Added White: "We realize we have a shot at winning all of it, and that's what we want to do."

Noteworthy

• Delta's players have been wearing armbands during the later part of the season to honor the memory of Shea Smith's grandmother, Sue Kinder, who passed away earlier this year.

"We really want to win it for her," Amelunke said. "She went to all our ball games. That's why we wear the arm bands."