Delta fights to end vs. Sikeston

Ashley Deprow may not be the biggest scorer on the Delta girls basketball team -- she had just one double-figure game in five prior to Tuesday's championship game of the Chaffee tournament -- but the 5-foot-9 sophomore center came up with timely points and plays to keep the Bobcats competitive with Sikeston.

Delta fell 46-44, suffering its first loss of the season. But the Bobcats, who trailed much of the night, rallied on several occasions from deficits of eight points.

Deprow was in the middle of several of those rallies, sometimes with points and other times with steals and rebounds.

She scored the team's first basket, which didn't come until more than 3 minutes had been played and Sikeston was on its way to a 10-2 lead.

"Ashley does a good job for us," Delta coach Randy White said. "She gets on the boards, grabs steals and battles inside."

Deprow, who finished with 12 points to lead the team along with Kaci Menz, didn't score any other points until the final 11 minutes, when she scored eight of Delta's last 14 points.

After Sikeston had taken a 36-28 lead with 3:00 to play in the third quarter, Kayla Seabagh and Deprow scored on back-to-back possessions to help Delta cut the deficit in half.

Deprow then converted her only 3-pointer of the night to pull Delta within 36-35.

Sikeston led 38-35 heading into the final period after a halfcourt shot by Delta's Shea Smith hit the backboard and the rim and bounced away.

Sikeston built a 44-37 lead before another Delta comeback. Deprow's basket with 3:23 to go put Delta within 44-43. She made one of two free throws -- Delta hit 11 of 14 as a team -- with 1:04 to play to tie the game.

Few words

White, who has led Delta to the Class 1 state playoffs in each of his five seasons, said there was little to say to his team after the loss, which was Delta's third straight in the Chaffee final.

"I don't tell them too much right after a loss," White said. "Kids aren't very receptive after a loss, so it's better to wait until the next day.

"I just went in and told them we can play better than we did and to keep their heads up," White said. "The season is really just starting and the important games are at the end of the year."

Sikeston impressed

The Bulldogs improved to 3-3 in Fred Johnson's first season building the Class 4 program with a young lineup. His roster has only two seniors.

Johnson was impressed with the Bobcats.

"Delta has a fine ball club," Johnson said. "Randy does an outstanding job over there, and I knew they wouldn't go away without a fight. They do things right on offense."

Kelly takes third

The Kelly Hawks, defending tournament champions, bounced back from a 70-58 loss to Sikeston to beat Oran 58-40 in the third-place game.

Kelly led just 5-4 after one period but increased the margin to 23-12 at halftime and 48-28 after three periods.

"The girls came out with a positive attitude," Kelly coach Rod McQuerter said. "That was the thing. It's hard when you play three games in four days."

For Kelly (4-1), the first of those three games was the loss to Sikeston.

The Hawks had eight players in the scoring column, led by junior Nikki Weiny's 17 points. Freshman center Debra Hall added 14.

"We played well in the second half and everyone on the team played hard," McQuerter said. "It takes a team and every girl we had played very well."

Oran back to .500

Oran fell to 3-3 with the loss in the third-place game.

The Eagles committed 17 turnovers in the first half against Kelly's waves of pressing defenders.

"Our decision-making was not good tonight," Oran coach Larry Boshell said. "We tried to run on offense when an opportunity did not exist, and then we reversed course and didn't run when we should have. We have to take care of the basketball. We would get a big steal, then we would give it right back to them on offense.

"Our girls did not quit tonight," Boshell added. "We got in the passing lane and disrupted some things they wanted to do on offense. We also did a nice job defending in the post and rebounding on the defensive end."