By Brad Greer

Both The North Delta School’s varsity boys and girls basketball teams closed out the 2008 portion of their schedules on a winning note Tuesday night by taking a pair of victories at the Delta Academy Christmas Shootout.

Junior  Sara Waldrip was practically unstoppable as the five-foot-eight forward swished the nets for 30 points to help guide the Lady Green Wave to a 54-34 win over Lee, Ark. Then later on the day, the North Delta boys earned a tough 54-45 victory over Briarfield, (La.). Both teams return to the court Tuesday to entertain Delta in a District 1-1A contest starting with the Junior High games.

Despite dressing out only seven players, the North Delta girls found  it easy going against an out manned Lee squad. The Green Wave jumped out to a 15-0 lead after the first quarter and never looked back while improving to 12-6 on the season.

Waldrip scored eight of her 12 first half points in the first quarter while Bradi Beard scored five in the first stanza. Beard, who is coming off an ankle injury that caused her to miss a pair of games last week, finished with 11 points.

Laci Dubravac’s steal and lay up in the closing seconds put the finishing touches on the first period. Lee, meanwhile, scored their first points of the game on a Kaitlyn Peterson jumper with 6:32 remaining before halftime. Dubravec ran the lane later in the stanza to make the score 21-7. Beard then added a jumper in the closing seconds of the half to give North Delta a 26-15 lead.

The second half was much of the same as Waldrip dominated the inside of the paint by hitting on 15-of-17 shots from the floor including a perfect seven-of-seven in the fourth quarter. North Delta’s largest lead was at 44-23 came with 5:22 left in the contest as Waldrip, who was named to the All-tournament team, scored off of an inbounds play. The Wave shot 58 percent ( 25-of-43) on the day while hold Lee to 11-of- 44 from the field.

Lauren Kimzey and Dubravac added five points each in the winning effort while Samantha Massoth had two points and Jordan Pointer scored one point.

North Delta Boys

In boys action, North Delta trailed 34-31 at the end of the third quarter before outscoring the Rebels 23-11 over the last eight minutes for the come-from-behind victory.

Corbin Baker hit a pair of key three pointers to help key the rally. Taylor Herron, who led all scorers with 16 points, added five points in the quarter. Jim Tom Copeland gave the Green Wave a six-point cushion at 51-45 with under two minutes remaining in the game. Bryan “B.” Nickle then iced the game with a pair of free throws with 20 seconds  to make the score 54-45.

Nickle, who was playing in only his second game of the year after breaking his hand during football season, scored eight points while Tres Brasell and Carson Bailey followed with four and two points each. Copeland and Baker reached double figure scoring with 13 and 11 points.

North Delta opened the tournament Monday with a 63-56 overtime win against Strayhorn in which saw the Green Wave battle back from a 14-4 first quarter deficit. Herron led the Wave with 23 points followed by Baker, Copeland and Nickle with 10 each. Brasell added four while Matthew Barefoot chipped in with three and Bateman Greenlee with one point.

The Green Wave will return to regular season action Tuesday, hosting Delta in district games beginning at 3 p.m. Friday, the Green Wave will host DeSoto, Ark. in district games beginning at 3:30 p.m.