By Angie Ledbetter
The North Delta Jr. high basketball teams took to the road last week for two games and ended with a district game at home on Friday night.

vs. Winona Christian

The teams traveled to Winona Monday, January 7, to take on Winona Christian. The junior high girls defeated Winona Christian 37-18. Bradi Beard was the leading scorer for the Lady Wave shooting 71.4 percent field goal percentage and 50 percent on free throws.

Laci Dubravec scored five points shooting 75 percent from the free throw line. Beard had 11 steals, three assists, and two rebounds. Jordan Pointer had eightrebounds and Mikki Whitworth had six rebounds.

The Jr. High boys won its game over Winona. Jim Tom Copeland led the team with 11 points, 12 rebounds and two steals. Tres Brasell registered a double-double with 10 points, 10 rebounds and one steal. Corbin Baker had seven points and two steals. Bryan Nickle had four points, four assists and six steals. Michael Magee had three points, three rebounds and two steals.

vs. Delta Academy

Tuesday night, the teams weathered the storms and traveled to Marks to take on Delta Academy Raiders in very solid games.

The Jr. High Lady Green Wave only scored four points in the first quarter but came back and scored 13 points in the second. They held the Raiders to six points to remain just three points behind, 20-17, at the half.

The second half of the game went flat for the Jr. High Lady Green Wave when they only scored four points in the third and 10 in the fourth. They allowed the Jr. High Lady Raiders to score 22 points in the third and 15 in the fourth and lost 57-31.

Katelyn Still was the leading scorer for the Jr. High Lady Green Wave with nine points. Bradi Beard scored eight points and was 100 percent from the free throw line.

The Lady Green Wave was just 26.7 percent from the three point range, 25 percent on field goals, and 53.8 percent for free throws.

The Jr. High Lady Green Wave had 18 total rebounds and Laci Dubravec had 10 of those with three assists. Beard had five steals of the team’s total.

The Jr High Green Wave won to remain undefeated overall. Corbin Baker was the leading scorer with 22 points. He also had three rebounds and one steal.

Nickle had eight points, two rebounds, three assists and three steals. Jim Tom Copeland had two points, four rebounds and one steal.

vs. West Memphis

The Jr. High Lady Green Wave ended the week of action hosting the Jr. High Lady Black Knights from West Memphis Christian.

The Lady Green Wave started the game by playing hard and hanging tough with the Lady Knights. At the end of the first quarter, the Lady Knights were up 14-9.

The Lady Wave out scored the Lady Black Knights 9-5 in the second quarter. Beard sank a three with 4:53 left on the clock. Dubravec followed with her own three with 3:49 to go to give the Lady Wave a 15-14 lead.

Mary Jane Morrow and Dubravec each got a steal to slow the Lady Black Knights. Beard went to the free throw line and tied the game 17-17 after making her two shots. The Lady Black Knights answered with a field goal. Morrow made one free throw to bring the Wave within one, 19-18, at the half.

In the third quarter, the lead went back and forth with the Lady Black Knights out scoring North Delta  11-8.

It was the fourth quarter that made the difference in the game. The Lady Wave were only able to score two points in the quarter. West Memphis had no trouble as they scored 13 for the 43-28 win.

Beard was the leading scorer with eight points, five assists. Other scorers include Hanna Greenlee, 7 points, 10 rebounds; Dubravec, 6 points, 6 steals, 2 assists. Mary Jane Morrow had 7 total rebounds.

Katelyn Still had 6 rebounds and two assists.

The Green Wave boys defeated the Black Knights 51-25 in a district blowout.

Baker and Brasell came out and scored within a few seconds of the game. Copeland made a 3-pointer to give the Green Wave a 9-6 lead with 2:35 left on the clock. Baker also came with a three. With 41.6 seconds left on the clock, Nickle scored a layup and the Green Wave were up 20-8 at the end of the first quarter.

In the second quarter, the Green Wave defense got tougher and only allowed the Black Knights to score 9 points while the Green Wave scored 13. Going into the third quarter, the Green Wave had a 33-17 lead.

The Green Wave scored 10 points in the third quarter and held the Jr Black Knights to six points.

The fourth quarter was no different as the starting line up for the Green Wave continued to dominate the game.      

Head Coach Brad Wilson started to substitute in the fourth quarter. Everyone saw some action in this game. The Green Wave won to remain undefeated with an overall record of 10-0.

 Copeland led the team with 17 points, 7 rebounds and 4 steals. Other scorers include Baker, 16 points, 3 steals; Brasell, 12 points, 6 rebounds, 2 steals; Nickle, 6 points, 4 rebounds, 8 assists, 4 steals; Michael Magee,  4 rebounds, 2 steals; Carson Bailey, 2 points, 3 rebounds; and Matthew Barefoot, 1 rebound, 2 steals.

Head Lady Wave Coach Phil Douglas said, “We were the dominant team with the Winona game. You hate to say this, but it was an easy win for us. It was a game in which everybody got to play. You need those games scattered out in your schedule especially when you’ve got games like we had on Tuesday night against Delta and again tonight against West Memphis. The girls performed well.”

Delta has one of the better junior high teams, according to Douglas.

“They’ve been together all through elementary school,” he said. They don’t play softball. They focus on basketball all year round. They’re a quality bunch of kids, too. I give them all the credit in the world. They work hard.”

In the West Memphis game, Douglas was pleased with the first half of play.

“We knew that their team was a quality basketball team,” he said. “I told them at halftime that I was extremely proud of them. And then we came out in the third quarter and it was like we didn’t even show up. We emphasize that one of the key moments in a game is the first 3 to 5 minutes in the third quarter and we were just flat.”

Head boys junior high coach Brad Wilson said he told his team Winona was going to be pretty athletic.

“I knew that they always had good athletes,” Wilson said. “I told my team not to come out dragging their feet and to play hard from the get go and they did. We were a little bit bigger than they were. Jim Tom Copeland and Tres Brasell had a really good night. Bryan Nickle had a lot of assists and did a good job of distributing the ball around. I think that we came away with a pretty good win. Everybody got in and I was real proud of how they played.”

The Delta game was a big rival game for the team and the fourth district game.

“A lot of the boys from North Delta know the boys from Delta and they are friends,” he said. “I was real pleased with the way that we played. We came out and full court pressed them and that gave them a little bit of trouble. We did a good job of running the court. We did a good job of being unselfish and passing the ball around on our transition game.”

The teams will be back in action Friday to host Marvell beginning at 3 p.m.