Lady Eagles toppled in title tilt

Lady Eagles accept
2nd place plaque at
the 2018 Delta NYT

The defending Delta New Years' Tournament champions, the Oran Lady Eagles lost last night to the team they defeated a year ago in overtime, the Saxony Lutheran Crusaders, 68-36.

Coach Ethan Evans said, "I thought we played well for a while but their depth really hurt us in the second half. They have a lot of quality players and don't drop off much 1-10. Hopefully, we will put up a better showing and play a full 4 quarters the next time we play."

In the defeat, Oran was held to its lowest point total since January 18, 2016, when they only managed 35 against the Crusaders in a regular season home matchup.

Of the 36 scored last night, Leah Cauble accounted for 28.  She hit one trey and was 13-17 from the line.  She also had a team-high seven rebounds.

Leah Cauble named
to the 2018 Delta NYT
All-tournament team

Jessie Long had six points and six boards.  Claire Ramsey and Katie Webb each had a free throw to round out the scoring.

As a team, they hit only 9-24 from inside the arc for 37.5% and 1 of 15 from beyond for 6.7%.  They were 15 of 22 at the free throw line for 68.2%.

Saxony led 22-13 after the first period and was up 34-14 at the intermission.  They blew the game wide open in the third, taking a 57-32 lead into the fourth.

With the loss, the Lady Eagles varsity squad is now 8-3.

The varsity and junior varsity will now enter participate in the Scott-Mississippi Conference Tournament next week in Scott City.  Both teams are seed number 1 in their bracket.  A copy of the brackets is located HERE (just scroll down a bit).