By SPENCER BATES
OLEAN — It was a tale of two halves for the Olean girls basketball team as Fredonia ran away with a 48-29 result after the sides entered the intermission with nothing to split them.
The opening half between the Huskies and Hillbillies was a defensive one to say the least, each team scoring just seven points apiece in the first quarter and eight apiece in the second.
Fredonia did well to swing the ball around the horn, but just as quick to react was Olean’s defense which solemnly gave up easy buckets early on.
But offensively, Huskies’ coach Chelsea Bowker was left wanting something more from her team, who seemed to get caught up as soon as it came to putting the ball through the hoop.
The hosts managed to break through the full-court press the Hillbillies implemented for a grand majority of the game with great consistency. Unfortunately for Olean, its shots weren’t falling and in the second half, it struggled to even get a shot off before conceding a turnover.
“We broke the press the whole time,” Bowker said. “Then, in the second half, it was turnover after turnover like we had never seen it before. I really wish we could play four quarters straight in-a-row and not have a halftime, because when we go into half and we come out, we’ve seen it many times this year, this is what happens.”
“We can’t want it more than them. And when we don’t make shots, we’re not gonna win games.”
Olean’s Ava Finch (1) attempts a layup after enduring contact on her way to the basket. (Spencer Bates)
Anna Bates and Alaina Hirliman led the Huskies with a team-high eight points apiece and it was the former that provided the punch early on, getting into space down low and drawing fouls.
But that aggressiveness ebbed in conjunction with the scoring in the second half.
“That aggressiveness starts on defense, and we didn’t have it,” Bowker said. “At halftime, we said, keep feeding it into Anna and we completely stopped it. It wasn’t anything (Fredonia) was doing. We just weren’t doing it. And when that’s your game plan, (the offense) backfires when you don’t do it.”
The offense was not the only thing that relaxed throughout the second half for the Huskies though, as the defense found itself much more permeable.
Fredonia pulled away for good in the third quarter of the game and ended up winning the frame by a score of 26-6.
“The first-half defense was great,” Bowker said. “They did what I asked, they were moving, had their hands up, they were playing hard. And then, we come out and we lose it in the second half. … We stopped going hard, we stopped trying to run our plays, we stopped trying to get out hard on defense. And, I mean, the score shows it.”
Fredonia was led by Piper Walnicki who recorded a game-high 22 points.
Olean’s Alaina Hirliman (4) pulls up for a floater from the free-throw line. Hirliman shared in a team-high eight points for the Huskies. (Spencer Bates)
Olean has just one game left in its regular season schedule, an away affair at Dunkirk on Feb. 10 at 7:30 p.m. The Huskies grabbed a win over the Marauders the first time the sides met this season and will be looking to finish the regular season on a high note with another win in the reverse fixture.
“I just want my team to finish and play hard,” Bowker said. “It’s a long season, especially when you’re losing a lot of games, but I just want them to finish strong.”
AT OLEAN
Fredonia (48)
Walnicki 8 3-3 22, Delcamp 2 2-4 6, Muck 2 0-0 5, Buckley 2 0-0 5, Creeley 2 0-0 4, Burrows 1 0-2 2, Polhamus 1 0-0 2, DiPalma 1 0-0 2. Totals: 19 5-9 48
Olean (29)
Bates 1 6-7 8, Hirliman 3 0-0 8, Finch 3 1-5 7, Battle 1 0-0 2, Mannings 1 0-0 2, Marshall 1 0-0 2, Maull 0 0-2 0. Totals: 10 7-14 29
Fred. 7 15 41 48
OL 7 15 21 29Three-point goals: Fred. 5 (Walnicki 3, Buckley, Muck), OL 2 (Hirliman 2); Total fouls: Fred. 9, OL 11; fouled out: None.
