The Del City Lady Eagles saw their momentum stall after a rough weekend in the 11th Annual Carl Albert Titan Classic.

It seemed like the season was rounding into shape for the 11th ranked team in 5A. They had just taken two out of their last three against top 20 6A’s schools while taking 10th ranked Southmoore to the wire in a loss.

Unfortunately for the Lady Eagles, rough breaks and shooting woes torpedoed a determined effort from Del City.

The tournament weekend actually started off well for the Lady Eagles when they took on the No. 1 team in 2A, the Millwood Lady Falcons on Thursday.

Lady Eagles’ senior guard Piper Kalthoff got off to a hot start hitting her first 3 baskets to give Del City an early 6-2 lead. Millwood struggled to maintain control of the ball with 2 quick turnovers.

The struggles wouldn’t last for the bigger Millwood team as forward Raven Prince found her rhythm scoring 6 points as Millwood took control 12-6 with a 10-0 run.

Del City wouldn’t go away either keeping the margin between 1 to 4 points throughout the second quarter until foul trouble became a factor.

“We couldn’t rebound. They’d call a foul on us,” said Del City Head Coach Karri Sears. “I’m not going to tell my kids to stop playing hard. My kids go up [for the rebound] with two hands every time.”

Millwood shot 17 first-half free throws with Prince going 7-8 from the line while Del City went 4 times. The free throw difference helped Millwood open up a 33-27 lead going into halftime.

The free throw disparity would continue in the second half and to make matters worse, starting forward Madison Welchel fouled out on a questionable call with 2:12 left in the third to thin out an already small Del City rotation.

Still, the Lady Eagles continued to scrap late into the fourth quarter down 51-46 with 3:28 remaining.

Del City would have their chances to tie or take the lead but turnovers and Millwood free throws, continued to plague them down the stretch. They ended up falling to Millwood 56-50.

“They’re getting tougher and getting stronger when they get challenged like that. Good things are going to happen,” said Sears of fighting through the adversity several times in the matchup.

Kalthoff started a nice tournament run with 18 points and 5 assists on 4-9 field goal shooting and 5-6 free throw shooting. Her teammate Alaisha Castleberry also chipped in 12 points, 4 assists and 4 rebounds.

Prince led all scorers with 30 points and 16 rebounds for Millwood in the win going 7-16 from the field but 16-21 from the free throw line.

Day Two

Friday’s action would be a bright spot for Del City against the Star Spencer Lady Bobcats

The Lady Eagles broke away early and never looked back with a 19-5 score after the first quarter.

It was a balanced scoring attack as Kalthoff and Castleberry had 4 each but freshman forward Ossyana Ozzant and sophomore forward Breail Goodlow chipped in with 4 points and 5 points respectively.

Del City continued to dominate the Lady Bobcats in the second quarter holding them at 5-17 in shooting from the field and taking a 42-19 lead into halftime.

The Lady Eagles would go on to win 69-33 to punch their ticket into the consolation championship against the Putnam City Lady Pirates.

Castleberry had 25 points and 3 rebounds in the win with Kalthoff adding 17 points and 4 assists. There wasn’t much left for Coach Sears to say on the dominating victory.

“Great performance. We stayed out of foul trouble and are ready for P.C. tomorrow,” said Sears after the game.

Day Three 

Del City came out as if they were ready for the Lady Pirates. They forced 6 first quarter turnovers on their way to a slim 9-8 lead.

However, Putnam City would switch to a zone in the second quarter that seemed to frustrate the Lady Eagles. Del City shot 3-7 in the first but only 1-9 in the second quarter.

Still, a late run saw Del City regain its 1-point margin.

The poor shooting continued in the second half with the Lady Eagles shooting 0-3 with 3 turnovers and even missing 2 free throws. The Lady Pirates extended their lead to 6, but Del City would fight back again. Putnam City was up only 3 going into the final quarter.

“We run zone a lot in practice so we should be able to break it down,” said Kalthoff of the team’s cold shooting. “I don’t know what it was. I guess that none of our shots were falling.”

Turnovers finally caught up with Del City in the fourth quarter. The Lady Eagles had just 2 at halftime but ended the game with 15.

The most costly turnovers came in the fourth when Del City tried to make one last push. The Eagles fell in the consolation championship to Putnam City 45-35.

Kalthoff battled a tough shooting weekend to take home an all-tournament selection after averaging 12.6 points and 3.6 assists. She shot 41 percent from the field but just 23.5 percent from distance.

“It feels good I know my shots weren’t really falling but my defense was good,” said Kalthoff about her all-tournament selection.

Despite the rough weekend, Del City believes its time is coming.

“They got to get over it and get past it and make up for it. They’ll get their wins,” said Sears.