By HUNTER O. LYLE
lyleoleanstar@gmail.com
ALLEGANY, NY – Opening the second day of the annual Joe DeCerbo Holiday Showcase, the Otto-Eldred girls’ basketball team notched their fifth win of the season, beating Jamestown 59-52.
The Lady Terrors’ offense was slow to get rolling. While Jamestown immediately attacked the paint for point blank baskets and second-chance scores, O-E preferred the perimeter, albeit, with less than frequent production. As their shots continued to miss their mark, the Lady Terrors struggled to box out or properly rotate, allowing the Red and Green to jump out to a 12-8 lead with three and a half minutes left. However, with a late 7-2 run, all of which came from Baylee Francis, O-E managed to cut the deficit to one heading into the second.
“(Early on) basically it was an effort thing. I’m not a screaming kind of coach, I rarely raise my voice but when I took a time out, something came out of me a little bit,” said Gray. “I let them know that I shouldn’t be coaching effort and that’s really all it was. They know what to do.”
Francis would continue to head the Lady Terrors momentum into second, scoring off their initial possession to bring the game back to even. From there, O-E would allow just one Jamestown basket over the next six minutes. Closing out on shooters and collapsing in the paint with help defense, the Lady Terrors denied any and everything from their opponent.
However, their offense struggled to capitalize. Throughout the Red and Green drought, O-E would tack on just six points, scraping together infrequent scores from split trips to the charity stripe and hard-fought looks at the rim. Going into the intermission, they clung to a 28-24 lead.
Switching to a 1-3-1 zone defense, the Lady Terrors kept the Red and Green out of the scorebook for the first four and a half minutes of the second half. Centralizing their focus on the paint, O-E dared Jamestown to rely on their less-than-efficient shooters. In the meantime, the Lady Terrors’ offense tacked on nine-unanswered points and with just over two minutes remaining, held a 39-26 advantage.
“(Jamestown) is kind of a young team and I don’t know if they were actually ready for a 1-3-1. It’s the nice thing about running it, not many people run it yet,” said Gray. “I think that helped with putting Baylee in the middle and having Carrie (Drummond) down low. They communicate rather well and that eliminated (Jamestowns’) paint touches.”
Carrie Drummond fights through traffic to get to the rim during O-E’s win over Jamestown on Saturday. | Photo by Hunter O. Lyle
Late in the quarter, however, O-E’s interior defenders would show attrition, allowing several offensive rebounds and blown rotation on drives. Ending on a 8-3 scoring run, Jamestown chipped the gap on the scoreboard to single digits ahead of the final quarter.
Jamestown’s hot streak wouldn’t carry into the fourth and once again, O-E offense went unmatched in the first handful of minutes. With contributions from Rayel Hakes, Addie Bell and Ayla Van Scoter, the Lady Terrors sparked a 7-0 run that stretched their lead to 15 with five and a half minutes remaining. While Jamestown was able to counter in short-lived runs, they were unable to mount a comeback, falling to 2-2 on the season as O-E marked their fifth consecutive win.
“I think that we’re starting to trust each other. That’s kind of been our theme this year. We have to trust each other because we’re young but we do have two seniors that start. We also have two freshmen that play a ton of minutes, we have two sophomores that started last year but they’re still finding their footing as well,” said Gray. “We’re starting to trust each other. I don’t think we had really done that up until today really at all. We were on the same page and I think if we continue to do that, we have the players that can take us pretty far.”
Recoring a game-high 18 points, Francis earned the Player of the Game award for O-E, while Addie Bell earned the Sportsmanship award with nine points. Van Scoter also scored nine points in the win while Carrie Drummond finished with 13.
“(Francis) brings an attitude. She doesn’t quit. That’s kind of built into her and she’s a great leader by example, especially as a freshman,” said Gray. “She’s never going to back down from anybody and she’s going to constantly communicate and talk. She’s got a nonstop motor and I think she hates to lose more than she loves to win.”
For the Red and Green, Anna Engquit took home the Player of the Game award for Jamestown, scoring a team-high 15 points. Makena Pryce ended with 14 points and Aivanna Stam scored nine.
AT ALLEGANY
Jamestown (52)
Engquit 7 0-0 15, Pryce 6 0-0 14, Stam 4 0-2 9, Olmstead 3 0-0 7, Daniels 1 1-2 3, Brandow 1 0-0 3, Tokin 0 1-2 1. Totals: 22 2-6 52
Otto-Eldred (59)
Francis 5 5-10 18, Drummond 5 1-2 13, Van Scoter 3 2-4 9, Bell 3 2-2 9, Hakes 4 0-0 8, Prince 0 2-2 2. Totals: 21 12-20 59
Jamestown 16 24 34 52
Otto-Eldred 15 28 42 59
Three-point goals: JM (6) Pryce 2, Brandow, Stam, Olmstead, Engquit, O-E (5) Drummond 2, Bell, Van Scoter, Francis; Total fouls: JM 15, O-E 8; fouled out: Daniels (JM)
