Delta girls fall short in C1 quarterfinal, send off lucrative 2023 class

In a game where emotions ran high, the Delta Bobcats girls' basketball team came up just short, falling to Chadwick in a Class 1 state quarterfinal on Saturday afternoon.

Falling all the way into a 12-point hole in the second half, the Bobcats nearly rallied back to win the game. Time ran out, however, ending Delta’s season with a 56-54 loss.

“It's a tragedy,” Delta coach David Heeb said, chuckling. “I mean, they're a really good team. They're very methodical. It's one of those games where, you know, you don't want to get behind the eight ball against a team like that.”

The dominoes began to fall as the Bobcats got matched up against a physical Chadwick team. Heeb credited the Cardinals for their physicality, but also quickly mentioned how the officiating came in a “let them play” manner, which may have come back against the Bobcats.

There came a play where junior Presley Holweg hit the floor on a drive and, as the Cardinals dove into a pile, Holweg worked to fight out of the pile and received a swift ejection from the officials, putting Delta down one of its key scorers.

Another two Bobcats came out of the game due to injuries. As the clock finally hit zero on a long and prosperous Delta season, the Bobcats simply didn’t have the firepower to hold off a more physical Chadwick team, holding Delta out of a return to the final four.

“I don't mean to say that the refs cheated. It wasn't anything like that,” Heeb said. “They just refereed the game tonight, favoring the more physical team. They were more physical than we were.”

The loss puts a cap on the careers of three Delta seniors – Allie Hampton, Sierra Berry, and Teriana Crowden – who finished their careers with a record of 91-22 at the varsity level for the Bobcats while finishing 25-4 for their senior year.

Heeb quickly pointed out the significance of this class, which served as a core element in the revival of the Delta girl’s basketball program and the rise to prominence that it received in the past few seasons.

“Those three kids are winners,” Heeb said. “They're just an example of how you don't have to be the biggest, or the fastest, or the strongest, or anything like that. If you work hard, you can be a winner.

“You’ve got to remember that these are kids that inherited a program that we didn't have a girl's team anymore. We didn't have enough kids to play. They brought this program back from literally not having a team to being one of the best programs in the state. It’s all because of them.”