Casey Ryder, Staff Writer |
This past Friday, the women’s basketball team fell to Cortland 69-52 in the semifinals of the SUNYAC conference tournament.
In the first quarter, our girls got out to a strong start early on. Molly Stephens opened the scoring just over a minute in with a jumper and that was followed up by a layup from Jenna Harclerode to put the team up by 4. That was followed up by a three-pointer from Cortland’s Maggie Malone.
The game was evenly matched in the first quarter as both teams went toe to toe exchanging buckets. Olivia Dobrovosky picked up four points for Oneonta and Corinne Miedreich picked up five for Cortland. Subsequently, Cortland led 11-10 with three minutes to go. However, Cortland finished the stronger of the two sides thanks to Casey Travers whose three-pointer and layup put the team up 16-10 at the end of the quarter.
Moving into the second, Cortland picked up where they left off towards the end of the first. Maggie Malone got the team started off with a jumper and following a jumper from Olivia Dobrovosky, Cortland’s Shannon McGuire scored a layup to put the team up by 8.
But our girls responded well, going on a 7-0 run for the following minute and a half to cut the lead to 1. This was thanks to a three-pointer and a pair of free throws from Molly Stephens, as well as a jumper from Jenna Harclerode.
The rest of the second went back and forth. Initially, following that run from Oneonta, Cortland went on an 8-3 scoring run for two minutes after that thanks to a three-pointer and a layup from Travers, and a three-pointer from Julia Siler. But that was followed up by a pair of free throws from Oneonta’s Oliva Dobrovosky and a three-pointer from Meg Nardelli to cut the lead to 1.
The game would stay this way for the remaining three minutes and at halftime, Cortland led 33-31. Oneonta supporters could be encouraged by this score because they were playing an away game and facing the 1 seed in Cortland.
In the third quarter, Cortland began to dominate the game. Following Molly Stephens’ layup which tied the game up at 35, Cortland went on a 13-2 scoring run for the next four and a half minutes to go up 48-37. The remaining five minutes were evenly contested and at the buzzer, Cortland’s Maggie Malone scored from three to put them up 57-47 at the end.
Finally in the fourth quarter, despite the best efforts of our girls, Cortland was totally dominant. Molly Stephens got the quarter started off with a three-pointer to cut the lead to 7 but after that it was one way traffic. For the remainder of the game Cortland outscored Oneonta 12-2 and as a result they wound up winning the game 69-52 to advance to the SUNYAC championship.
This result means that their season has come to an end. Despite the bitter ending, we couldn’t be prouder of our girls. They gave their all in every single game and we cannot wait to see what they do next season. Go Red Dragons!
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