FULTON COUNTY FOES … Addison Wyse (Delta) puts the ball on the floor during Delta’s non-league win at Pettisville.
INSIDE OFFENSE … Pettisville’s Sophie Beltz take a jumper in the lane while a Panther defender challenges.
By: Joe Blystone
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
publisher@thevillagereporter.com
PETTISVILLE (December 9, 2025) – With 2:53 left in the third quarter, scrappy Pettisville was within six points, down just 39-33 with highly touted Delta.
In the next eight minutes, the Blackbirds never knew what hit them. Delta outscored Pettisville 24-2 in that span and rolled to a 66-36 victory to move to 3-0 on the season.
“We had to stop playing NOT like ourselves,” Delta coach Kelsey Gillen said about the difference between the first 22 minutes and the last 10.
“We just didn’t come in ready to go like we are capable of. We were struggling all around, afraid to commit fouls. The main thing we told them was to play OUR basketball and be aggressive.”
That listless start led to a 1-7 start from the three-point line and 4-16 from the field in the first quarter.
Anna Lohman’s first of a number of swipe-and-scores kept the Panthers even at 10-10 with 50 seconds left, but Becca Strauss laced a long triple with 19 seconds on the clock to give the Blackbirds a 13-10 lead.
Keagyn Gillen stuck back a Panther miss that gave the Panthers a 14-13 lead 90 seconds into the second, but Strauss answered with a pull-up jumper that put Pettisville back ahead 16-14.
Lohman’s long triple from the wing started a back-and-forth series of lead changes. Hannah Fox’s bucket off a loose ball under the rim allowed the Blackbirds to grab a one-point lead.
Abbey Todd nailed a triple with 1:41 on the clock to put the Panthers up 24-22 before Strauss picked a pass and scored to tie the game with 21 seconds left.
Lohman hit nothing but the bottom of the net with a 24-foot triple at the buzzer to put the Panthers on top 27-24 at the break.
Delta shot just 11-36 from the floor but scored numerous times on second chances thanks to 14 offensive rebounds.
A Todd triple, then a pair of ‘pick-6’ hoops by Lohman and Addison Wyse boosted Delta up 39-29 halfway through the third.
Putback baskets from Sophia Beltz and Addison Davis closed the gap to 39-33 with 2:53 left in the third.
Tick, tick, tick….BOOM! Like a time bomb, and for the next eight minutes, the Panthers exploded to blow the game wide open.
Wyse lit the fuse with a power drive, then Lohman fleeced a Blackbird ball-handler and scored. Wyse hit 2-2 from the line, then Gillen went back-to-back buckets inside, and Lohman hit from deep at the buzzer for the second time on the night, to boost Delta’s lead to 52-33 at the end of the third.
“Our defense creates our offense,” Gillen said on the series of scores off turnovers. “Once we started picking it up a little more on defense, we got a few more easy shots in transition.
“Everyone has a night they struggle just shooting the ball. Hopefully, we learn from that, keep getting better, and move on.”
A Davis putback to start the fourth stopped the run, but then Delta rattled off another 11 points to put the game away.
Todd hit her third triple of the night, Gillen put back a fourth-chance hoop and meshed 2-2 from the line, then Lohman recorded her third and fourth solo scores off steals to make it 63-35.
“Their hands and length are everywhere,” Gillen said about Wyse and Lohman creating easy baskets with steals.
“They are long and every time they pick one it increases that panic mode and creates indecision in someone we play, ‘do we go above them, do we go below them’, they are just so athletic that they really create a lot of problems.”
Grace Maynhart’s three-ball with 65 seconds left gave Delta its biggest lead, and also the final margin at 66-36.
The biggest stat of the night was the turnover differential. Delta had just six for the game and only one in the second half. Pettisville had 24, 15 of which came in the last two quarters.
Lohman had 26 to lead all scorers while Gillen added 16 and Wyse contributed 12. Strauss had 14 to front Pettisville (2-4).
DELTA (66) – Maynhart 3; Lohman 26; Todd 9; Martinez 0; A. Gillen 0; Mohring 2; Wyse 10; K. Gillen 16; Hilyard 0; Totals: 18-8-6 – 66
PETTISVILLE (36) – Rice 0; Strauss 14; Fox 4; Hastings 1; Miller 2; Davis 8; Bieber 0; Beltz 7; Tiejte 0; Totals: 14-2-2 – 36
DHS 10 17 25 14 – 66
PHS 13 11 9 3 – 36