Bell City, Oran to meet for Class 1 crown

DELTA - For the second year in a row, top-seeded Bell City will square off with No. 2 Oran for the Class 1, District 2 championship on Thursday at 8 p.m.

Both teams took care of business in the semifinals with Bell City defeating No. 4 Leopold 73-49 while Oran blew past Delta 69-28.

Bell City (23-5) needed all four quarters to pull away from Leopold as the Wildcats trailed by less than 10 points late in the third quarter.

The Cubs, leading 50-36 heading into the fourth quarter, exploded in the final frame, out-scoring Leopold 23-13.

Junior Dominitrix Johnson led the way, scoring nine of his 23 points in the fourth quarter.

Senior Eric Henry followed up with 16 points while Kenyon Wright added 13 points.

"I don't think we played real well, but I thought we played real hard," said Bell City head coach David Heeb. "This time of year you just want to survive and advance. That wasn't a pretty win, but we had a few of those on the road to Columbia last year so I'll take any win we can get this time of year."

Bell City led 18-6 after one quarter but the pesky Wildcats hung around after that, trailing just 33-21 at the half.

The Cubs had trouble containing 6-foot-4 Leopold center Kevin Holzum, who scored 17 points. Leopold's Josh Vandeven also scored 17 points.

"Leopold played a good game, and I think we shot bad, but we played really hard," said Heeb. "You've just got to give Leopold credit. They had a good game plan and their kids played hard. I got a little worried, but I think that's healthy this time of year."

In an impressive defensive showing, Oran completely shut down host school Delta, which upset Scott County Central on Monday.

Delta led 3-0 to start the game but the Eagles went on a 27-0 run from there to turn the game into a blowout.

Oran (22-6) ended up leading 31-5 at the half.

The Eagles extended the lead to 46-11 heading into the fourth quarter where reserves played out the rest of the game.

Oran had 11 players score led by Patrick Friga's 13 points. Garrett Roslen followed up with 10 points.

Kevin Bartels led Delta with nine points.

The Bravettes reached the finals where they will play top-seeded Delta on Thursday at 6:30 p.m.

Scott Central led 49-17 at the half and never looked back.

The Bravettes were led by Brittany Godwin with 24 points. Jennifer Hoots followed up with 16, while Janet Penrod added 14 and Christina Valenzuela had 12.