Delta earns big home win over Principia

Top talent was on display on Tuesday afternoon when the Delta Bobcats battled with the Principia Panthers.

In the end, it was the Bobcats emerging with a 71-60 win over Principia.

“(Principia) has a heck of a team,” Bobcats coach David Heeb said. “Dasia Scott, you’re going to be watching her on TV someday. She’s a big time player.”

The talent was on display early as the two teams traded blows from the opening tip.

Principia held a 17-16 lead after the first quarter, but the Bobcats felt they were in a good spot, especially with Dasia Scott picking up her third foul.

“Us going at her early was a big part of the game,” Heeb said.

With Scott on the bench to open the second quarter, the Bobcats opened the second quarter of an 11-0 run to take a 27-17 lead.

“Addison (Nichols) said today during our walkthrough that when they take her out that’s when we need to make our run,” Heeb said. “When they did, I was there screaming like ‘Here’s your chance’.”

The dominant run forced the hand of Principia head coach Josh Spuhl as Scott re-entered to try and stop the bleeding.

Scott’s presence certainly reignited the Panthers as they cut the Delta lead down to 3 as the Bobcats led 38-35 at halftime.

“The thing is she’s like a giant guard,” Heeb said. “You’ve got to have help defense around her.”

Heeb said at halftime the team switched up the full-court press they run.

“We have two or three different presses we run so at halftime we went to plan b for the third quarter,” Heeb said. “When we got them where we wanted them we went back to plan a and that’s when we extended the lead again.”

After a competitive first half, the second half had high expectations from a competitive standpoint and it lived up to the hype.

With just over a minute to play in the third-quarter, the Bobcats were clinging to a 52-48 lead as the two clubs went back-and-forth.

“We’ve played some really good teams,” Heeb said. “I’m really proud of this group.”

The Bobcats led 55-48 after the third quarter and perhaps the driving force in the success they had in the third was the job the guards did finding Mya Gillespie in the short corner for open jumpers.

In the first four minutes of the final frame, Principia had multiple opportunities to string together stops but thanks to some timely buckets, Delta was able to maintain a 63-56 lead.

The Bobcats were able to continue its success offensively on the way to their 71-60 win.

Leading Delta offensively was Jade Berry with 21 points on a pair of made three-pointers.

Also scoring for the Bobcats was Addison Nichols with 18 points, Mya Gillespie with 12 points, Presley Holweg with 10 points, Grace Ancell with 8 points and Emma Walter with 2 points.

Delta (24-1) closes out the regular season at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 15, when the Bobcats Advance with Bell City.

“It’ll be senior night,” Heeb said. “It’s the last guaranteed home game for the seniors so I’m just hoping they get to go out with a bang.”