By Angie Ledbetter

The North Delta Lady Green Wave hung in as long as they could, but fell to the Desoto Lady Thunderbirds 49-43 Monday night.

The Lady Thunderbirds took this district matchup in a hard fought battle.

The young Lady Wave team went up against a team of juniors and seniors who were very fast, experienced and ranked No. 5 in the state.

The Lady Thunderbirds went up 6-0 in the first quarter, but Lady Wave Lauren Kimzey shot from the three-point line to put the Lady Green Wave on the boards. A few minutes later, Kimzey went to the free throw line and tied the game at 6. With only one second left on the clock, Samantha Massoth shot a three and the Lady Wave went up 9-6 at the end of the first quarter.

In the second quarter, the Lady Wave kept the lead all the way. With 3:21 left, the Lady Wave had a 17-12 lead and maintained a 20-19 halftime lead.

Hannah Greenlee hit a three to tie the game at 23 with 6:07 left in the third quarter but the Lady Thunderbirds answered and went up by two. The Lady Thunderbirds came alive and took a 37-29 lead over the Lady Wave at the end of the third quarter.

The Lady Wave fought hard in the fourth quarter. The game got very physical and exciting.  With 1:55 left in the game, Kimzey went to the free throw line and only made one shot to bring the Lady Wave within five points.

With less than one minute left on the clock, the intensity of the game picked up.

With 49.1 seconds left, Greenlee made a three-pointer to cut the lead to four, 47-43. The Lady Thunderbirds made another basket but the Lady Wave missed to end the game.

Kimzey led the team with 17 points. Other scorers include Sara Waldrip, 8 points; Madison Greenlee, 6; Samantha Massoth, 5; and Hannah Greenlee, 4.  

On the defense, Waldrip had nine total rebounds and two steals.  Madison Greenlee had seven total rebounds and six assists.

For a team with very little experience, Lady Wave Head Coach Phil Douglas was very proud of his team.

“They (Desoto) were preseason No. 5 in the state and they have had a very good basketball team over the last three or four years. We had them 20-19 at the half.  We had 21 turnovers and a lot of them were unforced, just walking up the ball, picking up our dribble, double dribbling.  If not for these mental mistakes, we could have won the game. The Lady Thunderbirds scored 70 points on Clarksdale Lee last Saturday night and we held them to just 49 points.  They’re a very potent offensive machine and we did some very good things defensively tonight to control that,” Douglas said.

The Green Wave teams will be back in action tomorrow to take on Clarksdale Lee in games beginning at 2 p.m. Tuesday, they will be at Marvell for games beginning at 3:30 p.m.