By Brad Greer

North Delta girls head basketball coach Phil Douglas has always prided his team on playing aggressive defense, but what the Lady Green Wave did Wednesday night against Central Hinds was just plain sick.

North Delta held the Cougars to seven field goals, five of which came in the second half, while forcing 22 turnovers on their way to a 55-16 rout in the second round of the Academy North AA State tournament.
With the victory, North Delta (29-8) will move on to the simi-final round today at 1 p.m where they will face the Oak Hill/Prairie View, (La.) winner. The winner of that contest will move into tomorrow’s championship game at 2:15 while the loser plays in the consolation game at 1 p.m. The top four teams will advance to the AA State tournament next week at Kirk.

Despite Central Hinds losing record, Douglas admited being somewhat nervous having to play against a team his squad has never seen before and playing in front of a jacked-up home crowd.

“Having not played in four days and facing a lower-seed team, I was a bit concerned how we would come out and play. This was a game, on paper, we knew we should win, but at the same time, playing here at home in North State for the first time I did not know how our girls would react to everything,” said Douglas.

Whatever concerns the veteran head coach had quickly diminished as the Wave raced to a 9-2 lead after one quarter of play and 20-2 advantage midway through the second quarter.

Central Hinds (14-16) took a 2-1 lead in the opening minutes but did not score again until a Mary Beth Hale basket at the 4:00 mark of the second quarter. By then the Lady Wave had taken control of the contest by 19 unanswered points.

Bradi Beard pulled down 10 rebounds while leading all scorers with 19 points to go along with eight steals and four assists. Beard was also a perfect six-of-six from the free throw line.

Laci DuBravec got North Delta’s offense rolling with a pair of three-pointers in the first quarter as the senior accounted for nine of her 12 points in the first half.

Katelyn Still added her only points of the night with a trey to start the second quarter to extend the North Delta lead to 12-2. The senior guard also registered five steals on the night.

The Green Wave three-point barrage continued in the second period as Charla Shea Darby connected on a pair of three’s to make the score 26-4 at the 3:21 mark.

North Delta hit on nine-of-28 shots from beyond the three-point mark while shooting 19-of-57 (33 percent) from the floor.

“We did a great job limiting them to shot tonight and like I have told them before, this team blocks out better than  almost any team I have ever coached.We played a tough man-to-man defense and our ability to shoot the outside shot were the key factors tonight,” said Douglas.

Peyton Rico and Darby followed with six points each while Hanna Greenlee chipped in with five points and eight boards. Hastings Neal contributed with four points.