By Brad Greer
The North Delta varsity basketball teams geared up for post season play Monday with a pair of easy victories over Desoto, Ark. on ‘Senior Night’.

In the opening game, the Lady Green Wave ran their winning streak to 10 games in a row with a 61-41 victory. The North Delta boys meanwhile overcame a sluggish start to post a 53-33 win over the Thunderbirds.

Bradi Beard led the Lady Wave with 17 points as fellow seniors Katelyn Still and Hanna Greenlee added 16 and 12 points each. No. 4 ranked North Delta, improved its record to 26-8 on the season.
All five Lady Wave seniors started the game including Hannah Waldrip, who started her first game of the year.

North Delta raced to a 17-7 lead after the one quarter of play thanks in part to Greenlee’s six first quarter points and Still who added seven points in the stanza.

Dixie Quinn kept Desoto in range with a trey to close the margin to 17-12 early in the second quarter. North Delta’s offense went into high gear by going on a 14-4 run as Charla Shea Darby and Hastings Neal canned a pair of three-pointers while Greenlee added a short jumper.

Laci DuBravec’s easy layup in the closing seconds of the first half gave North Delta a 35-20 lead at intermission. Scout Mauch nailed a pair of three-pointers as Desoto outscored the Green Wave 14-8 in the third quarter to cut the margin to nine, 43-34, going into the final eight minutes.

The Lady Wave ended all thoughts of a Desoto comeback in the fourth as Beard and Still connected on a pair of trey’s while Greenlee knocked down three straight short range jumpers to extend North Delta’s lead to 55-37 with 5:20 remaining.

Darby finished with seven points while Neal and DuBravec added five and four points each.

In the boys’ matchup, Desoto jumped out to a 9-4 lead after one quarter of play before the Green Wave went on an 11-0 run in the second quarter to take a 15-9 lead and a 17-13 advantage into the locker room.

Tylor Lee’s only basket  gave North Delta (7-17) its first lead of the game at 10-9 with 5:20 left in the first half.

Renic Greenlee, who led the Wave with 17 points, drained a trey on the following possession to make the score 13-9.

Hunt Howell later added a bucket with 1:11 showing on the clock to give the home team a 15-9 advantage.

Desoto cut the North Delta margin to 19-17 early in the third quarter on a Garrett Smart basket. The Wave answered with a pair a three’s from Colby Pirtle and Greenlee to build the lead back to 29-22.
Greenlee later ended the third with a three-ball from the top of the key to give North Delta a 34-25 advantage.

The Wave blew the game open in the fourth quarter outscoring the T-birds 18-6 to win going away.

Pirtle followed Greenlee in scoring with 10 points while Howell supplied nine. Sam Copeland added six while Luke Williams chipped in with five.

William Rayborn, Lee and Jonathan Mackey all scored two points in the victory.

North Delta opened District 1-AA tournament action last night at Carroll Academy against Indianola. A win over the Colonels would pit the Wave against top-seeded and No. 1 ranked Marshall today at 5:15.
The Lady Wave meanwhile take to the court tonight at 6:30 against the Marshall-Carroll winner played last night.

North Delta will host the North State tournament beginning Monday, but the schedule will not be complete until the district finals are played Saturday evening.

Editor’s Note: North Delta boys lost to Indianola 42-40 Thursday night and ended their season.