Delta rallies in fourth to beat Willard

KANSAS —The end of a season is always tough. But some sting a bit more than others. The Willard girls basketball team saw a seven-point fourth-quarter lead get erased in the final minutes of Saturday's Division V district championship game against Delta at Lakota High School. The Crimson Flashes were unable to get it back from there, as the Panthers (21-4) closed the game on a 15-2 run over the final five-plus minutes in the 52-46 win. Willard (20-5) ends its season as district runner-up for a second straight year. Delta advances to face powerhouse Columbus Africentric on Tuesday in a regional semifinal at Mansfield Senior High School. "We had some opportunities, and I thought for a while we had some decent looks at the hoop that we just didn't convert," Willard head coach Alanna Bedingfield said. "You have times like that, and we just got a little tight at the end. We had a lot of opportunities, and it just didn't go our way today." The back-and-forth game saw eight ties and lead changes in the third quarter. But that is also when the Flashes ran into foul trouble, with both Reese Bedingfield and Camryn Wiers picking up their third fouls in the contest. Still, after trailing 33-30 when Delta standout Addison Wyse banked in a 3 with 1:40 left in the third, Willard was able to go on a 6-1 run to close the quarter and retake the lead. Leah Weiss scored inside for Willard, then Emelia Tallman followed suit 23 seconds later for a 34-30 lead. Wyse split two free throws to tie the game, but Tallman was fouled on the other end. She made two free throws with 25 seconds left, and Willard took a 36-34 lead into the fourth quarter. Willard's run then continued into the fourth quarter. Dalynn Funk drove straight to the rim for two more points, then Reese Bedingfield was able to score from the baseline with 6:51 left for a 40-34 advantage. Delta's Olivia Mohring then converted a three-point play with 6:27 remaining, and Reese Bedingfield picked up her fourth foul in the process and went to the bench. But Willard came back again. Corrin Gettys put in consecutive baskets around a Delta miss, and the Flashes had a 44-37 lead with 5:12 left. However, that was as good as it got for Willard down the stretch. Wyse drilled a deep 3 from the top of the key with 4:40 left to keep the pressure on, and then after a Willard turnover, Anna Lohman scored for the Panthers to bring her team within 44-42 with 2:30 remaining. Reese Bedingfield came back in the game with 2:18 remaining, but Delta rolled with its momentum. The Flashes committed two straight turnovers, and a three-point play off a foul and made basket by Mohring with 1:56 left gave Delta the 45-44 lead. "It was a balancing act with Cam guarding their best player in foul trouble, and Reese was solid for us all game," Coach Bedingfield said. "She got us going. How soon do you put her back in knowing if it goes to overtime ... it's a risk. It's something where you just play the odds a bit sometimes. "We have seven girls we have confidence in, and when there is foul trouble, it's OK, because we have kids coming in who can do the job. We may have waited too long to get Reese back in there as far as what you think you could have done differently." After Willard's second turnover, Delta was content to try and dribble out the remaining 1:15 left in the contest. Forced to foul, Delta's Keagyn Gillen made two free throws with 56 seconds left to make it 47-44. Gettys scored at the other end for Willard with 31 seconds left to bring the Flashes within 47-46, then another quick foul sent Lohman to the line with 26 seconds to go. She made both, then disaster struck Willard as Wyse stole the ensuing inbound pass with 22.1 seconds to go and was fouled. Wyse made both to push the lead out to 51-46, and that was it for the Flashes. A missed 3 at the other end saw the Panthers get the rebound and split two free throws in the closing seconds to seal the win — and cap a 15-2 scoring run over the final five minutes. "It comes down to the little things," Coach Bedingfield said. "And I thought our defense had done a pretty good job of getting the shots we wanted them to take, but then we struggled to get the rebound. "They were crashing really hard and got some offensive rebounds that led to some scores down there, and at the other end, I think their pressure bothered us." In the first half, Delta came out firing with three 3s in the first three minutes to grab an 11-7 lead. Reese Bedingfield then took over, scoring nine straight points in the quarter over a 2:39 stretch to give Willard a 16-11 lead. Willard led 16-13 after the first, then Tallman extended the lead to 19-13 with a 3 just 13 seconds into the second. Reese Bedingfield again had consecutive baskets to push the lead out to 23-17 with 3:27 left in the half. Mohring brought Delta to within 24-21 in the final minute, only for Gettys to score with 18.9 seconds left to give Willard a 26-21 lead at the break. Wyse then scored the first two baskets of the second half, the last on a 3 that gave Delta its first lead in 14:29 of game action. The rest of the third saw the lead change frequently before the final eight minutes. Wyse finished with 20 points for Delta, while Lohman had 14, and Mohring scored eight. In their final games for Willard, Reese Bedingfield had 20 points, while Gettys scored 12. Emelia Tallman added seven, and Weiss scored four points. "We had seven girls who I considered seven starters, and we really had seven girls who connected well on and off the court," Coach Bedingfield said. "Our five seniors were great leaders, and a lot of their success is because they are leaders. "They put in a lot of time, and the results speak for themselves. To win 20 games is a good season, even if there were some heartbreaking losses in there. I'm proud of the girls, and we're really going to miss those seniors."