Delta girls turn over Higbee as Nichols’ breakout performance commands comeback

Higbee had Delta girls basketball beat for the first two and a half quarters, but the Bobcats used an electric fourth-quarter rally to blow by one of the top teams in their class, 80-55, on Saturday afternoon.

Traveling to play in the Central Bank Shootout in Jefferson City, Missouri, Delta faithful may have gotten a playoff preview as two of MSHSAA’s top Class 1 schools traded blows in a 10 a.m. game at Helias Catholic High School.

Delta met its match early, falling into nine-point deficits twice in the first half before adjusting enough to keep the game within reach.

“We played absolutely terrible in the first half, and they made some shots,” Delta coach David Heeb said. “Higbee has got [Lauren Spilman], that kid can shoot the ball. She shot a couple from, like, 50 feet.”

Higbee, as a team, is like a rubber band. When you pull it and release, it’ll shoot back in the other direction. The elastic Tigers had a response for all of Delta’s swings early.

But Delta pulled, and pulled, and pulled – until that rubber band snapped in two. That’s when the Bobcats have made their living, and it rang true on Saturday morning.

“They've got a good team. They've got a good record. Coach [Tanner] Burton does a great job. As the game went on, you saw our mental toughness and our conditioning. We just wore them down.”

Wore them down they did, as the Bobcats finished the game on a 36-5 run. Trailing by six late in the third, Heeb’s girls took over quickly and precisely en route to a gigantic road dub.

To grab a win over a good team is always a big one. But to go on the road in a semi-home matchup for Higbee and dominate as they did down the stretch, it ages like fine wine.

Against one of the best teams in the class, Delta proved it belonged with an undeniable fourth quarter and an unbelievable performance from its star guard tandem.

“This time of year, to play a game a long way from home against an uncommon opponent is a very valuable thing. You're going to start doing that every two or three days in the playoffs. You're gonna see somebody you've never seen before.

“It's not like playing Chaffee, or Oran, or Scott City, you know? To be able to shake off whatever nerves you have and regroup is a good thing for our kids.”

The tale of the first quarter was the shooting efforts of Higbee’s Lauren Spilman and Delta’s Addison Nichols.

Falling into an early 13-4 hole, Nichols splashed back-to-back triples to bring Delta back into the game.

Higbee responded, however, and got a couple of 3-pointers itself from Spilman to take a 23-20 lead after the first.

Tigers coach Tanner Burton furiously called a timeout early in the second despite his team having built a 31-22 lead over the Bobcats.

Yet again, Delta climbed out of this hole with a 15-5 run to retake the lead at 37-36 late in the third.

But Higbee squeaked out a halftime lead at 38-37 with the Tigers in the bonus, splitting two sets to go up a single point at the interval.

Delta went down six again to start the third, but Nichols and Jade Berry triples helped the Bobcats retake the lead after a back-and-forth start to the second half.

That slim lead continued into the fourth quarter as Grace Ansell hit a buzzer-beating leaner to go up 56-53 at the end of the third, with the side official throwing an emphatic “count-it” signal as the Bobcats went back to the bench.

Berry started the fourth with a 3-pointer, which insinuated a big Bobcat run that reached a head when Mya Gillespie got a bucket and the foul to go up 69-55 as the crowd roared to life once more.

Delta ended up outscoring its classmate 24-2 in its raucous fourth-quarter run, dominating the Tigers as they seemingly ran out of the gas necessary to keep up.

When all was said and done, the Bobcats ended the game on an impeccable run to steal an 80-55 victory away from Higbee despite the Tigers leading for the majority of the contest.

All five Delta starters finished in double-digit scoring, led by a masterclass performance from senior guard Addison Nichols.

Following Nichols’ blazing trail, Jade Berry led the pack with 14 points. Presley Holweg added 13, Mya Gillespie another 12 and Grace Ancell another 11.

But on the top of the scoring pyramid, Nichols’ 28 rose above all, 16 of which came in the Bobcats’ huge second-half comeback.

Another surreal performance from the star Delta guard, Heeb holds her to a standard that few guards in Southeast Missouri could match up to.

And yet, with the spotlight on her, she thrived in the moment and, in turn, led the Bobcats to one of their biggest wins of the year on one of the biggest stages of the season.

“I thought Addie played terribly in the first half,” Heeb began. “Then, she showed why she's one of the best players in the state of Missouri in the second half.

“I challenged them all at halftime. I asked her. I said, ‘Are you who I think you are? Are you the ballplayer I think you are?’

“And she showed it. She did.”