Delta junior hits 1,000 points as Bobcats ends losing streak against Richland Rebels

The 1,000-point milestone is a career achievement that is usually accomplished by a basketball player in their senior year.

Ryan Jeffries, however, reached the benchmark in his junior year.

Jeffries scored 18 points to lead the Bobcats to a 60-56 win over Class 1 District 2 rival Richland on Thursday, Feb. 13, in Delta.

"It's really impressive, not only as a junior, but he didn't score a lot his freshman year, and he kind of came out of nowhere for us last year," Delta head coach Toby Heeb said of Jeffries. "There's just a lot of times he puts us on his back and hits a big shot or makes a big play."

Jeffries has long been the leader of a junior class that makes up the majority of the varsity squad. Yet, he's usually not the only scoring option. Fellow junior Bryce Cox scored 15 points, sophomore Skylar Vandeven added 10 points, and junior Paxton Hornbuckle chipped in nine points for the Bobcats.

"That carries over to the other guys," Heeb said. "They start doing the same thing, and they all just gel so well together that they want to do well for each other and not be the guy to let everybody down."

Delta's win snapped a three-game losing streak against Richland, a skid that includes the Class 1 District 2 title game in 2023. Heeb's tenure in Delta started in 2022-23, and he finally got his signature win.

"This is probably the biggest win since I've been here in three years," Heeb said. "I think it was huge. It's a district win. It meant a lot to us. Two years ago, they beat us in the district championship by five or so points. So to come out here and play the way they did, it was really impressive."

Heeb has spent his entire tenure rebuilding the boys' basketball team since the departure of Chris Hahn, who left Delta with two district championships in 2020-21. Meanwhile, his brother, David Heeb, coaches one of the premier girls' basketball teams in Southeast Missouri, winning five straight district titles and finishing the Class 1 Final Four twice.

Each girls' basketball game attracts nearly the entire town of 400+ and fills the gym. It took the final home game of this season for the Bobcats to play in front of a similarly packed crowd.

"It was a pretty large crowd," Heeb said. "We expected that. They didn't let that get to them, and they just did their job.

"You always want to come out and play well in front of your home crowd and your fans and kids in your school that come out and support you."

This is the culmination of a breakout season that has the Bobcats at 12-10 before the final four games of the regular season. Their 12 wins are the most since finishing 17-11 in 2020-21.

Heeb knew as early as this past summer that this was going to be a breakout year for the Bobcats.

"We played a lot of games over the summer, different shootouts, played some good teams," Heeb said. "in the last two summers, we go play people, and they blow us out. This year, we were competing and winning games, and I think that just built their confidence."

At one point, Richmond was in the lead after an 18-12 first quarter, led by Hunter Sanders making three baskets from the three-point line.

Jeffries woke up in the second quarter with eight points as the Bobcats outscored the Rebels 21-11 during the period. Delta went into halftime leading 33-29 after Cox scored at the buzzer, drew a foul, and made a free throw.

The Bobcats maintained that advantage throughout the second half on what Heeb chalked up to as "toughness."

"They're bigger than us," Heeb said. "You play Richland, you got to rebound or you're not gonna have a chance. I thought that we really locked in 75% of the game on rebounding, and being tough and hanging onto the ball."

Both teams scored 27 points throughout the second half, which gave Delta the win. Sanders finished the game with 12 points after a hot first quarter, and Gary Tilley led the Rebels with 21 points.

"I thought the first half, we just did not match the intensity level," Richland head coach Matt Cline said. "We didn't finish around the rim. Delta did a great job, but we just turned, we got careless with the basketball and turned the ball over the middle of the floor, very careless with it. We didn't match our intensity level whatsoever."

Richland won the last two Class 1 District 2 championships and has three of their four seniors reach the 1,000-point career milestone. Tucker Hughes and Eric Williams joined Sanders during the Rebels' 63-50 loss to New Madrid County Central during the Charleston Shootout on Feb. 8.

"They've played together since they were freshmen," Cline said. "They meshed together well. They've been pretty consistent over their career, and there's been a lot of scoring coming from every different direction."

Richland (12-11) has struggled lately, losing five of its last six games. The Rebels will be on their court for the rest of the year with three home games to close out the regular season as well as hosting the C1D2 Tournament.

"I think there's an advantage, but it's not an advantage if we don't play hard, match intensity and match energy," Cline said.

The Rebels host Hayti (Feb. 15), Bernie (Feb. 18), and Bloomfield (Feb. 20) to close out the regular season.

After their road game at Marquand-Zion on Friday, Feb. 14, the Bobcats will close out the regular season with a challenging road trip to East Prairie (Feb. 15), Bernie (Feb. 17), and Chaffee (Feb. 18).