By Brad Greer

If anyone ever doubted  the North Delta Lady Green Wave was not one of the top teams in Academy North AA basketball, then they are showing in the Kirk Invitational tournament over the weekend might have changed all of that.

After defeating powerful Oak Hill 51-47 in Friday’s semi-final round, the Lady  Wave gave No. 1 ranked Pillow all they wanted and then some before falling to the Mustangs 46-40 in the championship game Saturday afternoon.

North Delta, winners of seven of its last nine games, fell to 16-8 on the season while Pillow remained undefeated at 20-0 on the year.

On the boys side of the bracket, North Delta took home third place by way of a 48-39 win over Kirk in the consolation game after falling 41-38 to Indianola Thursday night.

North Delta ladies found themselves down 12-2 early in the second quarter to Pillow before going on a 12-1 run to close out the first half trailing 20-19 at intermission.

“We had a lot of momentum going into halftime and we always tell our kids that the most important part the game when a game is that close is the first three minutes of the third quarter,” said head coach Phil Douglas.

“But we didn’t do what we needed to do in the opening minutes of the second half. We did not score for the first four minutes and then we picked it up later and made a run of our own. We had a chance at the end, but we did not take advantage of some opportunities that were presented to us,” said Douglas.

North Delta began chipping away at the Mustang lead midway through the second quarter as Hanna Greenlee’s basket trimmed the margin 19-12. Charla Darby then popped a three-pointer with 1:18 remaining for a 20-17 Mustang lead. Katelyn Still’s runner in the lane with five seconds left closed out the first half.

The Mustangs came out smoking in the third quarter by going on an 11-0 spurt to extend their lead to 31-19. Bradi Beard ended the Pillow run with a three-pointer to make the score 31-22 at the 3:49 mark.

Callie Blake Masterson nailed a 15-foot jumper to close the gap to 31-26 at the end of three quarters.

In the fourth quarter, Beard’s jumper got North Delta within four points, 36-32. Walker Kimes and Kristen Stephens knocked down a pair free throws to push the lead to 40-32.

The Lady Wave was not through however as Still and Greenlee hit back-to-back buckets with 2:03 remaining for a 40-36 Mustang lead.

Pillow finally put the game away by sinking four straight free throws in the final minute of the contest.

Beard led North Delta in scoring with 10 points to go along with six rebounds, five assists and five steals. Still and Greenlee followed with eight points each. Laci DuBravec chipped in with seven points while Darby and Hastings Neal added three and two points each.

Beard’s 17 points led North Delta to their second victory over Oak Hill this season. DuBravec chipped in with 16 points while adding one of two critical free throws in the final 10 seconds to close out the game.

Greenlee and Neal followed with six points while Still and Claire Gant added four and three points.

ND Boys

Renic Greenlee’s 18 points led all scorers as the North Delta boys got past the host Raiders in the third place game.

The Green Wave led 24-15 at intermission before Kirk cut the lead to 28-27 after three quarters. Hunt Howell knocked down a pair of field goals to give North Delta a 34-29 lead.

Greenlee would later add five straight free throws down the stretch  to put the game away. Sam Copeland contributed with nine points while Howell finished with seven. Jonathan Mackey added six points while Tylor Lee registered four.

Colby Pirtle and Luke Williams rounded out the scoring with two and one point.

North Delta hosted Marvell, Ark. in two varsity games Monday and will travel back to Kirk today for district matchups starting with seventh grade games action at 3:30 p.m.