No. 4 Delta overcomes offensive struggles to reach final; Platte Valley earns chance to defend title

Story and photo by Cody Thorn 

SPRINGFIELD — Delta coach David Heeb is hoping perhaps the lower-than-normal offensive output for his team was just an anomaly.

The No. 4-ranked Ladycats had its second worst offensive production of the year, in terms of points, but held on for a 43-30 victory over No. 10-ranked Walnut Grove in a Class 1 semifinal game on Friday at Hammons Student Center. 

“First of all is the absolute worst game we've played all year,” Heeb said as he shared his thoughts on the game in the postgame press conference. “I mean, absolutely the worst game we played all year. But great teams are able to survive, you know, a bad game and that's what we just did. We did not shoot the ball even half of what we're capable of, but our defense and our hustle is what kept us in that ballgame.

“I don't know if it was all nerves or we just weren't ready to go. We tried to keep the game plan. Pretty simple. You get here you want to play, you know, kind of dance with the one that brought you and so we tried to do that. But when they play that bad, it's my fault. So tomorrow I'm going to try to do better.”

The only other time the Ladycats scored less than 50 points in a game was a 55-42 loss to Cape Girardeau Notre Dame on Dec. 22. That is the lone blemish on what is now a 28-1 record following the semifinal win.

Delta took advantage of early turnovers by Walnut Grove and took a 13-6 lead after the opening stanza. Allie Hampton and Kendall Holweg hit 3-pointers during the stretch and Delta had 10 points off turnovers.

After falling behind by nine points, the Tigers (23-8) settled down in the second quarter and cut Delta’s lead down to one in only 3 minutes.

Kylie Craig had two layups, while Jaedyn Johnson and Raygan Dougherty each added baskets, making it 18-17 — an 8-0 run.

Presley Holweg’s basket with 37 seconds left in the first gave Delta a 20-18 lead at the break. Nichols hit a pair 3s late in the third quarter to help the Ladycats close on an 8-2 lead and take a 30-22 lead into the final 8 minutes.

Walnut Grove didn’t score for nearly the first four minutes in the third quarter. The Holweg sisters each scored early in the fourth and helped build a double-digit lead the Ladycats never relinquished.

Nichols, behind four 3-pointers, scored a team-high 12 points for Delta. Jade Berry and Kendall Holweg had nine each.

Walnut Grove’s Jacie Gavisk had a double-double with 13 points and rebounds. This was the 10th time in the past 11 years the Tigers reached the state semifinals – winning five titles – with 2018 the lone exception.

Delta, meanwhile, will be in the title game for the third time in school history following 1980 and 2008, both runner-up finishes.

“I mean, it feels really good,” Kendall Holweg, a senior guard, said of reaching the finals. “It's like we've worked really hard for this. From the minute that he (Heeb) got here, he's been telling us that we can go to state and some people thought he was crazy. Well, obviously, we're here so it's nice that we were able to prove that. I really hope we come out tomorrow and play a lot better than we did.”

Heeb will be busy Saturday night, not only coaching in the finals, but also will be part of a 20-year anniversary of Bell City winning the Class 2 boys title.

He is hoping a little bit of Bell City’s luck carries over to his Delta squad this time. He sees the parallels already.

“The first game up here we played almost identical to this,” Heeb said of his Bell City squad. “I mean, just play terrible. And then the next game we were lights out we scored like 88 points or something like that. So you know, I'm hoping that history repeats itself.”

Bell City struggled in the semifinals but pulled away to beat Stewartsville, 65-55. The next game, Bell City beat Santa Fe, 88-68, to claim the title.

Platte Valley 45, Leeton 37

For the second straight day, the top-ranked teams in the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association poll met up in the semifinals.

And like in the Class 3 semifinal, the No. 1 team prevailed over the No. 2 team.

Leeton led 16-12 in the second quarter but the mascot-less Platte Valley team closed on a 13-5 run. Six of those points came from Stephanie Turpin.

That helped Platte Valley, last year’s state champions, take a 25-21 lead into the break.

Leeton (24-3) pulled within a bucket after Regan Shaffer hit a jumper nine seconds into the third period, but a 10-0 run by Platte Valley – a co-op between Jefferson and South Nodaway – made it 35-23 with 4:18 left. Maggie Collins had eight of 11 points during that surge.

The 12-point never got lower than six the rest of the way – coming on a pair of free throws by Shaffer with 1:51 left, which made it 43-37.

Leeton never scored the rest of the way and Platte Valley (28-1) got a bucket from Brylie Angle to cap the scoring. Angle had a game-high 15 points.

Collins finished with a double-double by grabbing 11 rebounds.

Shaffer was the only Bulldog in double figures scoring 13 points and shared the team lead in rebounds with Jadeyn Johnson with five.