Eagles claim Delta New Year's Tournament championship

The three point line at Delta had not been kind to senior Brianna Stause this week.  Going into last's night game, she had hit only 1 of 6 from beyond it.  Against Saxony Lutheran she had hit only 1 of 9, but during a 30 second stretch of overtime, she hit back-to-back bombs to propel her Oran Eagles to their first ever Delta New Year's Tournament championship, 64-62.  It also broke a six-game, five-year losing streak against the Crusaders that included last year's title game.

The top-seeded Eagles looked like the underdogs as second-seeded Saxony jumped out to a quick 8-0 lead just a minute and a half into the game and things looked bleak.  But after an Oran time-out and some pressure defense, the Eagles knotted the score at 12 with 3:05 left.  Oran led after 1, 18-14.

During the second quarter, the Eagles held their biggest lead of the contest at 5, 22-17 with 4:36 left but the Crusaders outscored Oran 8-5 the rest of the way and it was 27-25 at the intermission.

The Eagles were up 32-28 two minutes into the third, but Saxony would tie it up at 32 with 3:42 remaining.  The teams would exchange the lead several times, but Oran led 43-40 heading into the final eight minutes.

The Crusaders would score the first four points of the fourth quarter to take a 44-43 lead with 6:24 left.  But the Eagles, who never gave up, out-scored Saxony 8-3 to regain the lead 48-47 with 4:11 left on the clock.  The Crusaders had a 54-50 lead with 2 minutes remaining, but once again Oran refused to quit.  A Leah Cauble pull-up jumper just inside the free-throw line tied the score at 54 with only 49.3 seconds remaining.  That is where the score stood when Saxony was awarded two free throws following a foul call on a missed shot with 0.7 seconds remaining.  After the first shot missed, the second clanged off the back of the rim and was grabbed by Jessie Long and the game headed into overtime.

During the 4 minute extra period, the Eagles scored first but found themselves down 61-58 with 55 ticks left.  That's when Stause came up with her late-game heroics.  She tied the game with 31 seconds left and the hit the game-winner with 3.0 left on the clock.  The Crusaders were unable to get off a last-second desperation attempt and Oran had claimed the crown.

When asked about the last shot, Stause said, "I actually thought it was off a little and was turning around to hustle back and play defense. All week long I haven't hit a decent shot and it finally came around when we needed it most and I couldn't be more thankful."

Coach Ethan Evans said, "It was a great win for the girls. Saxony is the type of team we have to be able to beat to make a deep playoff run. After we got down 8-0 I was thinking to myself here we go again. The girls battled back and just played good hard-nosed basketball all night. I couldn't be prouder."

Cauble was the game's top scorer with 31, she hit a three-pointer and was 16-20 from the line.  She added 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals.  Kaylee Payne also hit for double-digits with 10, she was 4-5 on free-throw attempts and dished out a team-high 5 assists.  Payne picked up her fourth foul in the third quarter, came back in early in the fourth and finished the game on the floor.  She hit 4 of her points during that time.  Jessie Long had double-digit rebounds, grabbing 11 boards she also led the team in steals with 4 to go along with her 7 points.

Stause finished with 9 on 3-10 shooting from beyond the arc and Claire Ramsey had 7, she hit two treys in the first half.  She also had a huge steal late to help seal the victory.  Kenzie Graviett played but did not score.

The Eagles hit 40% from two-point range (12-30) and 28.6% from distance (6-21).  The difference in the game was at the free-throw line where the winners hit 22-30 for 73.3% whereas Saxony was only 6-13 for 46%.

Oran improved to 10-0 on the year.

They will be back in action Saturday morning at 11:30 when they travel to Poplar Bluff's Three Rivers College to take on Twin Rivers.