SIKESTON -- Sikeston's girls basketball team ended the regular season with a 51-34 win over Delta on Thursday.
All three seniors on the Lady Bulldogs' roster contributed to the final score on Senior Night, with Summer Ray finishing with 13, Tyrese Wims adding four and Jaime Medlin contributing three.
"This is what we needed going into districts," said Sikeston coach Lee Brooks. "Delta is so good on the inside and at moving the ball around, we just wanted to stay down on defense. We wanted to slide to the ball instead of running to it."
Delta played well in the first half, but turned the ball over 10 times over the final two quarters. Sikeston converted on several of those with transition baskets to pull away for the win.
"We had too many turnovers," said Randy White. "That's something we haven't normally been having. We also gave up a few backdoor cuts, which we don't normally do. We've been playing pretty well -- shooting well and playing good defense."
Delta came out hitting on all cylinders, jumping out to a 10-5 lead. Brooks wasn't surprised by the early success of the Lady Bobcats.
"Randall White has done such a great job with his girls in his first year there," said Brooks. "They have really bought into his program. We knew they were going to come ready to play, and they did. We had to turn up our game."
Sikeston got back in contention with a Ray 3-pointer, then the Lady Bulldogs took the lead as Jennifer Medlin banked a trey off the glass at the buzzer to make it 12-10.
"(Medlin) is a good shooter," said White. "We let her get free for a couple of baskets. As a team, Sikeston played well."
Sikeston was able to increase its lead to 20-17 in the second quarter, before Delta's Rebecca Below tied the score with a conventional 3-point play.
The Lady Bulldogs ended the quarter on a 6-2 run to lead at halftime 26-22. In the third quarter Jennifer Medlin exploded, scoring 11 of her game-high 16 points.
"Jennifer does her own thing," said Brooks. "She can see gaps and has great movement with our without the ball. She made the backcut we always practice when the defense overplays."
The surge gave Sikeston a 12-point cushion heading into the fourth quarter.
"We wanted to push the ball up the floor," explained Brooks.
"I knew Delta didn't have a deep bench, and we wanted to see if we could get out ahead of them. I saw they were kind of bending over in the first half, so I felt we could run it on them."
In the final frame Delta attempted to get back into the game with a 3-point barrage, but mustered just five points as Sikeston cruised to the 51-34 victory.
Below led all Delta scorers with 16 points, scoring 12 in the first half. In the second half, Sikeston defender Kerri Jones limited her to just four free throws.
"Kerri has done a better job," said Brooks. "She comes in and doesn't mind pushing and shoving. She's a blue-collar player and enjoys a challenge."
Rebecca Cook finished with eight points, and Sarah Cook contributed six, all in the first quarter.
Delta (16-6) will seed for the 1A District 2 Tournament on Saturday at 1 p.m. Sikeston (14-9) has been seeded fifth in 3A District 1, and will face Perryville in the first round on Monday at 5 p.m. The district will be played at Sikeston.
Sikeston defeated Delta in Thursday's junior varsity game, 15-10. The game consisted of just two quarters. Ebony Collins paced the Lady Bulldogs with eight points, followed by Mia Welch with five and Berneatress Hunt with two.