By Brad Greer

The North Delta Lady Green Wave has experienced some tough losses this basketball season, but Monday night’s 42-41 gut-wrenching loss to Marshall might have been the hardest pill to swallow.

After losing an 11-point third quarter lead followed by a six minute scoring drought, the Lady Waves still found themselves in position to snatch a victory from defeat on the game’s final play only to have a three-point shot by Katelyn Still bounce off the front end of the rim as time expired.

With the victory, Marshall wrapped up the District 1-AA regular season championship with a perfect 8-0 league record. North Delta (17-9) meanwhile finished out the district slate with a 4-4 record after a 43-29 road win at Indianola Tuesday night to sew up the No. 3 seed in next week’s district tournament hosted by North Delta.

Trailing 29-18 with less than one minute into the third period, Marshall went on an 18-0 run to take a 36-29 lead with two minutes remaining in the quarter. Kelsey Shaw, who led all scorers with 25 points, extended the Patriot lead to 39-31 on a three-point play with 6:25 left in the contest.

North Delta then made its move when Laci DuBravec drained a three-pointer to cut Marshall’s lead to 39-34 at the 3:58 mark. Less than two minutes later, Madison Greenlee’s steal and layup shrunk the score to 40-38. Lane Cunningham sank two huge free throws with 1:31 left to give the Lady Patriots a 42-38 advantage.

After a Marshall turnover on its following possession, Greenlee drilled a trey from the left corner for a 42-41 Patriot lead with 1:06 left in the game. That however would be as close as North Delta would get in the contest.

North Delta jumped to a 14-9 lead. Shaw nailed a three-pointer at the end of the first quarter. Hanna Greenlee’s jumper in the paint increased the Green Wave lead to 18-11. Marshall answered by with a 7-0 run on a Shaw three-pointer with 1:04 remaining before intermission.

Madison Greenlee led the Wave with 14 points and six rebounds while junior Bradi Beard followed with 10 points, six rebounds, four assists and four steals. Hanna Greenlee and Still chipped in with six points while DuBravec and Hannah Waldrip finished with three and two points each.

Boys – Marshall 53; ND 38

Peyton Lewis scored 18 points while Chase Ferrell added 13 as the Marshall Patriots (22-5) completed a perfect district record at 8-0 with a 53-38 win over North Delta.

Marshall jumped out to an 11-0 lead in the first quarter on a Lewis floater in the lane. North Delta (13-7; 6-2) got on the board with 1:03 left in the stanza on a Corbin Baker layup. Farrell later added a pair of free throws and with a slashing layup extended the Patriot lead to 21-13 with 3:05 left in the first half .

North Delta pulled within  five at 25-21 to start the second half on Baker’s trey only to have the Patriots (22-5) go on an 11-1 run to regain control of the game.

Jim Tom Copeland led the Green Wave with 12 points followed by Bryan ‘B’ Nickle and Baker’s 10 points. Derrick Shawn added six points.

North Delta rebounded from the Marshall loss with a 53-32 win over Indianola Tuesday night. Copeland led all scorers with 18 points while Shawn contributed 17 as the Wave secured the No. 2 seed in the district tournament.

The varsity teams will host Carroll Academy Monday in the final game of the regular season at 6 p.m. The district tournament will be hosted by North Delta starting Thursday.