By Angie Ledbetter

North Delta Lady Green Wave head basketball coach Phil Douglas said his team gave good effort on the floor in the first round of the district tournament at Delta Academy on Thursday, February 7.

North Delta lost to Desoto Arkansas 47-35 ending the season with an overall record of 12-15 but Douglas saw some positive in the game.

The Lady Wave came out in the game and took a 5-2 lead after Linsey Herbert scored a three-pointer with 7:09 on the clock.

Desoto tied the game at seven but Herbert hit another tres with 4:15 on the clock to take a 10-7 lead.

With 2:56 left on the clock, the Lady Thunderbirds went i[ 13-10 and took the lead for good in the first quarter and led 21-14 at the end.

Desoto turned up the heat and a had a 33-17 lead at halftime and a 39-24 lead at the end of the third quarter.

Hanna Greenlee led the team in scoring for the night with 10 points. She was perfect  from the free throw line. Lauren Kimzey scored eight points, followd by Herbert with six. Other scorers include Sara Waldrip, 4 points; Laci Debravec, 3 points; Madison Greenlee and Samantha Massoth, 2 points each.

Waldrip led the team with 11 rebounds, three blocked shots and five steals. Madison Greenlee had six assists, two steals, and 1 blocked shot.

“We have got to work on our shooting,” said Douglas.  “We talked about that after the game. As individuals, they have got to get in the gym and get better shooting the basketball.  We shot 25 percent from the two point range, 30 percent from the three-point range, and 50 percent from the free throw line tonight. You aren’t going to win many games shooting that kind of percentage.

“We got within eight points and then I think that we created five turnovers with our press in a row and we didn’t convert on a single turnover,” Douglas added. “That was a heart breaker for us.  We were poised to make a run at them if we could have just converted on the turnovers.”

Douglas stressed the positives to the team after the game.

“The effort was there,” said Douglas. “Coach Beck from Desoto complimented the girls as well as Nancy and I on the fact that we didn’t quit. She told her girls at halftime that make no mistake about it, they’re not going to go away. We didn’t and we’re not going to lay down.”

Eighth grader Hanna Greenlee led us in scoring with 10 points.

“She was 100 percent from the free throw line.”

Douglas said that was a positive thing for the team.

“Mary Jane Morrow, I thought gave us some good minutes tonight. She’ll be the one ninth grader that will be coming up along with Madison Greenlee who is a returning ninth grader. Both of them will be sophomores next year. Then we will have our four juniors.”

For next year, Douglas said the biggest thing that the team has to work on is shooting.

“The effort is there defensively,” he said. “We make a few mistakes but we create a lot of chaos with our defense. We do a lot of traps and we have got to work on our rotation on the backside. Overall defensively, we are pretty solid.”

Douglas reiterated it was up to the players to get some workouts done in the gym in the offseason.
“If we will really dedicate ourselves to becoming better shooters this year, you are going to see a huge difference offensively in this team next year,” Douglas said.