Delta rides its defense to title

~ The Bobcats beat Kelly 40-28 to win the Chaffee Invitational on Saturday afternoon.

CHAFFEE -- Delta senior Sarah Keys said she knew playing a strong zone defense would be the main way to upset a tall and quick Kelly team in the Lady Devils Invitational championship game

"We worked on defense the day before in practice," Keys said. "We played a lot of defense. We practiced against our JV. We played defense while they played offense."

The No. 2 seeded Bobcats, which typically run either a man-to-man or zone defense, focused primarily on their zone defense Saturday and executed it with success.

Delta pulled off a 40-28 upset of the top-seeded Hawks to win the Chaffee Invitational.

Kelly's Sarah Ruff looked to pass the ball as she was guarded by Delta's Sarah Keys.

The underdogs were led by Sara Blattel, who netted 13 points. Keys added six points.

The Bobcats did an especially effective job of containing Kelly's top offensive threat, junior Debra Hall, who entered the contest averaging 20 points per game in the first two rounds of the tournament.

Hall looked sharp early on in the first quarter. She scored her team's first five points as the Hawks jumped out to a 5-2 lead.

"We were kind of nervous in the beginning, but we just calmed down a little bit," Keys said of her team's feeling about Hall's strong shooting early. "She's a very good ballplayer. She can score very well. We just played a tough defense."

After Hall scored the first five for the Hawks, she was held to just one more basket for the remainder of the contest.

Blattel added that the other strong aspect of the Hawks' offense is its speed.

"Kelly has a lot of quickness," Blattel said. "A key was stopping their penetration."

Kelly did get to the basket and force fouls, but struggled from the line. The team shot 15 percent from the free-throw line.

The Bobcats took their first lead at 6-5 and pulled out to an 11-7 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Delta then jumped out to a 17-9 lead early in the second quarter.

But the Hawks, playing some difficult man-to-man defense of their own, got back into it when Hall and senior Sarah Ruff both forced steals that resulted in baskets to bring the deficit to four at 17-13.

The Bobcats rallied for four points to head into halftime with a 21-13 lead.

"Coach told us everyone was playing good defense and we were doing a good job, and to keep it up," Blattel said.

The Bobcats went on a 7-0 to begin the third quarter -- a run that was aided by three Kelly turnovers. Two of them came on steals by Taylor Smith and Keys.

From there, the Bobcats rolled to a 12-point victory.

"They played a zone and we just got to learn to shoot the ball on the outside more instead of trying to force things up," Hall said. "We've played against plenty of them. We just need to smarten up as a team and shoot more outside. That's all we can do.

"We're going to come back on Monday and work on that."

Delta 11 10 12 7 -- 40

Kelly 7 6 10 5 -- 28

Delta (40) -- Taylor Smith, 4; Amanda Drew 4; Alison Burger, 4; Amanda Seabaugh 1; Jodi Menz 6; Sara Blattel, 13; Sarah Keys, 6; Jessica Kidd, 2. FG 17, FT 5-12. F 11. (3-pointers: Menz.)

Kelly (28) -- Sarah Ruff, 3; Londyn Backfisch, 12; Kayla Cissell, 4; Tara Johnson 2, Debra Hall 7, FG 14, 2-13; F 11.