C1D2: Richland ends Delta’s cinderella run in Class 1 District 2 Championship

ZALMA - The Class 1 District 2 number 1 seed Richland Rebels absorbed all blows and runs Delta offered Friday night at Zalma High School and held court as the top seed held on and advanced to a Class 1 sectional berth with a 71-66 victory.

“I'm just really proud of their effort,” first-year Delta boys coach Toby Heeb said. “We had ups and downs all season and at times things looked like they could go south a lot during the year and to come out and play the way they did this week and prepare every day for a team that beat us pretty bad earlier in the season I’m really proud of their effort tonight.”

Delta, with a season record of just 7-20 coming into the championship game, indeed took one on the chin against Richland back on December 20 when the Bobcats lost handily to the Rebels at home by 30 points, looked like a totally different team Friday night.

Delta, starting three freshmen (Isaiah Berry, Bryce Cox, and Paxton Hornbuckle), a junior (Coleton Deckard) and a senior (Carter Scherer), more than held their own against Richland this time around, hanging with the Rebels throughout the contest. What seemed like at times a sure game-changing run by Richland that would give the Rebels a 10 or 12-point lead soon found the near-capacity crowd witnessing Delta turn around with a run of its own to cut the lead down under five points.

The Bobcats just couldn't quite muster the big run to capture the lead when it needed.

“I feel we had a good gameplan,” Heeb said. “That’s a really good basketball team we played tonight and we knew we had to rebound to have a chance but gave up a few more second-chance buckets than we wanted. We tried to limit Hunter Sanders' chances as well and tried to take him out of the equation as much as possible but he ended up getting his points so it worked, but then again, it didn't work for us.”

Sanders, Richland’s do-it-all point guard, would eventually nail three out of four huge free throws that sealed the win for the Rebels with under a minute remaining as the 5’8-sophomore still managed a game-high 24 points to lead Richland to its first district championship in over 15 years.

The Rebels also got a 20-point performance from senior Damon Ivy along with 15 points from sophomore Eric Williams and 10 from sophomore Tucker Hughes.

Richland (14-13) will take on the Class 1 District 1 Champion Clarkton Reindeer, who defeated top-seeded Delta C-7, Monday at 6 p.m. at Liberty High School in Mountain View.

Delta was paced by Scherer’s 20 points in his final game as a senior followed by 18 points from Berry, 11 points from Hornbuckle, and eight points from Cox.

Although the Bobcats graduate four seniors (Scherer, Trevor Stoffregen, Gavin Lesch, and Austin Key), Heeb believes the future is bright for his program with five under-classmen giving his team positive minutes towards the end of the season, “I’ve really enjoyed being around our seniors and our four senior’s leadership grew all season to help poise our youngsters down the stretch. Carter (Scherer) played huge for us all season and didn't come off the floor on most nights but they're all good kids who gave it everything they had so I’m excited for our freshman who played a ton of important minutes this season at the varsity level.”

Heeb and his Bobcats end their season with a record of 7-21.