Delta girls basketball team rights slow start, defeats Scott County Central

DELTA -- After her teammates broke through the Scott County Central press that had given them fits all night, Delta junior Tori Burton found herself wide open in the corner midway through the third quarter.

Burton made her 3-point attempt to tie the game and seemingly opened up the basket for her team.

The Bobcats made four 3-pointers over the next two minutes and came from behind to beat the Braves 60-47 for the Class 1 District 2 championship Thursday on their home floor.

Delta was 5 of 6 from behind the arc in the third quarter and outscored SCC 28-14 in the quarter.

"They can shoot the ball, but we had to get it across half court where we could get the shot," Delta coach Randy White said. "When you're turning the ball over, you're just taking away scoring opportunities. We took away too many scoring opportunities the first half."

Delta turned over the ball 18 times in the first half, including 13 times in the second quarter.

Many of those turnovers were forced by the Braves in the middle of the court. SCC scored eight points in about 30 seconds to take a 26-22 lead by stealing the ball on consecutive Delta possessions.

"We'd just run off and leave two kids out here to beat the press, and at times we put our head down," White said.

SCC took a 29-26 lead into halftime but never led after Samantha Bartels' 3-pointer gave the Bobcats the advantage with 3 minutes, 37 seconds left in the third quarter.

"We got that little lead and then in the third quarter they were on fire," SCC coach Semona Penrod said. "When they were on fire with 3s, we couldn't answer. I think we got a little frustrated there and kind of hung their heads."

The teams played on the same floor last Friday with Delta winning easily 62-35.

"The last time we played them, they weren't really all up on us or anything like that," Burton said. "They were pressuring hard this time."

Delta was led by sophomore Machela VanGennip with 22 points. Bartels finished with 19 points and Burton added 17.

The Bobcats (17-9) will play District 1 champion Naylor at 7:45 p.m. Wednesday at Dexter High School.

"We were just really nervous and once we finally got calmed down at halftime, we came out and we played our game," VanGennip said. "We just were so nervous, and we let our nerves get to us. But we aren't going to let that happen again."

SCC started four freshmen and a sophomore and did not have a junior or senior on the team, making the future a bright one according to Penrod.

"It's something I told the kids in the locker room," she said. "They were in there bawling and crying and I said, 'Girls, you've got to look up. You don't have anything to be ashamed of and you've got a great future ahead of you as long as you're willing to work as hard as you have to this point. It should be a different story by next year if we do our job.'"

SCC 12 17 14 4 -- 47

Delta 14 12 28 6 -- 60

SCOTT COUNTY CENTRAL (47) -- Mikaela Blissett 14, Johniqua Fort 10, Derien Ditto 5, Abby Ross 2, Dazique Gillespie 16. FG 19, FT 4-8, F13. (3-pointers: Fort 2, Ditto 1, Gillespie 2. Fouled out: none)

DELTA (60) -- Machela VanGennip 22, Tori Burton 17, Samantha Bartels 19, Myra Henson 2. FG 21, FT 10-14, F 12. (3-pointers: VanGennip 2, Burton 2, Bartels 4. Fouled out: none)