By Brad Greer

Saturday was not a good day for the North Delta boys and girls basketball teams as both fell to defeat in the District1-AA tournament at Indianola Academy.

The Lady Green Wave saw its season come to a disappointing end with a 50-31 loss to Indianola. In the consolation game North Delta, who had come into the tournament as the No.2 seed and had  defeated the Colonels in both regular season contests, ended the year with a 19-15 record.

The North Delta boys meanwhile dropped a 56-48 verdict to Marshall in the championship game. Sophomore Chris Brown led the Green Wave in scoring with 16 points. Despite the loss, North Delta will advance to the North AA tournament at Leake Academy where they will take on District 3 runner-up Canton (18-7) tonight at 7:30. A win will put the Wave into semi-final action Friday night at 7:15 against the Carroll/ West Memphis Christian winner.

Indianola, (19-15) jumped out to a 23-3 lead early in the second period as the Lady Green Wave went almost ten minutes without scoring. Lauren Kimzey’s three-pointer tied the game at three  with 6:16 remaining in the first period. North Delta did not score again until the 4:31 mark of the second quarter on a Sara Waldrip basket, but it was too little, too late as Indianola built up a 29-12 halftime lead.

North Delta outscored the Lady Colonels 11-2 in the third period to trim the margin to 31-23 as Bradi Beard accounted for six of her team-leading ten points in the quarter. Courtney Wilson sank four of five free throws in the fourth quarter to push the lead to 38-26. Lauren Leard then added two more freethrows following a technical foul  to make the score 40-26 with 3:45 remaining. The Colonels hit 21-of-29 shots from the charity stripe while North Delta converted only 5-of-12 from the line.

Laci DuBravec and Madison Greenlee each recorded four points while Hannah Waldrip, Linsey Hebert and Kimzey all added three. Sara Waldrip and Katelyn Still rounded out scoring with two points each.

The Lady Wave was knocked into the losers’ bracket game with a 35-29 loss to Marshall Friday night. Greenlee led the way with 13 points while Beard followed with eight. Hanna Greenlee registered four while Sara Waldrip chipped in with three and Still added one.

In the boys championship game, Caleb Byrd knocked down a three pointer as the regular season champion Patriots jumped out to a 13-4 lead late in the first quarter. Marshall, (22-7) extended the lead to 24-10 midway through the second on a three pointer from Jordan Wyke and a Chase Ferrell layup.

Jim Tom Copeland kept the Wave in striking distance late in the quarter with a pair of inside buckets to make the score 28-19 with 1:08 remaining before intermission. Copeland finished the game with nine points.

Derrick Shawn canned a three pointer to open the second half closing the margin to 32-24. The Patriots then went on 14-4 run on a pair of Taylor Maurey’s baskets and Ferrell’s three-point play extended the lead to 46-28.

Brown’s trey and Bryan Nickle’s coast-to-coast layup cut the Patriot lead to 53-44 with 1:09 left to play, but Wyke’s two freethrows and a pair of baskets by John Tomlinson cinched the victory for Marshall.

Nickle followed Brown in scoring with 13 points while Shawn added five. Corbin Baker and Geri Lamm scored three and two points respectively.

North Delta reached the title game by way of a 57-40 victory over West Memphis Friday.Copeland led all scorers with 22 points while Shawn and Nickle had 13 and 10 each. Brown chipped in six while Ethan Frick added five. Lamm added one point.

Nickle, Shawn and Copeland were named to the boys All-tournament team while Beard was selected to the girls squad.