By SPENCER BATES
ALLEGANY — Frankly, there must be very few better ways to continue an undefeated start to the season than a wire-to-wire victory over your crosstown rivals.
In defeating Olean 45-34 at home, that is exactly what the Allegany-Limestone girls basketball team was able to do.
But not only do the Gators stay undefeated, moving to 4-0 overall, with the win, they move to 1-0 in CCAA Div. I play on the season — a big milestone to hit early considering the length and level of competition in their league as head coach Andrea Darrow noted.
“It is huge, we talked about it all week,” Darrow said. “This is our first league game, not that the other games don’t matter, because they were really good preparation for this, but this one matters for the long run. So it does feel good to have that win.”
A-L controlled just about each and every aspect of the game, starting on defense. Its high-press caused problems for the Huskies all night, resulting in turnovers galore and fastbreak points the other way. This was perhaps the biggest positive for Darrow, who has been trying to get her side to understand and operate the press since the season-opener.
“Our press gave us a lot of opportunities,” Darrow said. “While we were in our press, there were very few times where (Olean) was on the offensive end. So I was really proud of that, because we haven’t executed that super well yet this year.”
Offensively, the Gators were just as methodical. Their offense operated at a consistent and effective pace. It sliced through the Huskies interior defense and found themselves with a number of relatively easy baskets down low. Just about everybody got in on the action as well as eight different players got on the scoresheet in the win.
That being said, it wasn’t perfect. As the game wore on, the fluidity of the offense started to break down and points were much harder to come by.
“They did a really good job again,” Darrow said. “I think we were a little more patient. But in that third quarter, we came out and I thought we had a portion of time where we weren’t as patient. We talked about game situations, starting to use the clock and I thought we got back there at the end of the fourth and started to utilize the clock a little bit more.”
Allegany-Limestone’s Serena Frederick (4) puts up a layup against Olean. Frederick scored six points for the Gators in their win over the Huskies. (Spencer Bates)
The Gators led by 16 points entering the final frame, but the Huskies were not about to take the loss lying down. In the wake of the A-L offense struggling, Olean took it upon itself to make a final push towards pulling off what would have been a remarkable comeback. Through about five minutes of game time in the final frame, the Gators had scored just two points. Meanwhile, the Huskies had trimmed their deficit to single digits for the first time since the first quarter.
“At halftime, I told them I don’t want Allegany’s lead to grow. I want to keep it the same, or I want to chip away at it,” Olean head coach Chelsea Bowker said. “They worked hard for me in the second half, and they did exactly that. I’m super proud of that. It’s definitely progress from last year, because last year, when we made one mistake, we made two, when we made four mistakes, we made five. So, I’m definitely proud. I’m happy to see that they were able to be disciplined and turn it around.”
Despite Olean’s late surge, A-L wound up shaking off the rust and secured the victory in the closing minutes.
A result that may have gone the other way if not for some costly mistakes made early in the affair that gave the hosts a leg up. The Gator defense was staunch, there is no denying that, but as Bowker admitted, her Huskies played right into their hands by getting too ahead of themselves in possession.
“It’s something I preached all week,” Bowker said. “We knew Allegany was going to press us. They like to create chaos. They like to speed your offense up. And we don’t do well with that. As soon as we calm down, we’re fine. The lanes are open, we just got to hit them. But we’re so amped up and excited that we end up throwing it away or stepping out of bounds.”
Olean’s Ava Finch (1) looks to drive towards the Allegany-Limestone basket. (Spencer Bates)
On the flip side, there were also times when build-up play was too slow. And yes, Bowker understands how it may be confusing to hear your coach tell you to both speed up and slow down. However, what she is trying to get her players to understand is that they must find a balance between the two and operate based on the situation.
“I definitely yell mixed messages to them, because I know what I would be doing in that moment, and I feel like they need to be knowing too,” Bowker said. “It’s just about them getting used to playing with each other, because there definitely are times where you need to speed it up. And there’s definitely times when you need to slow down. … It’s the fourth game of the season, we battled back, so I’m super, super happy about the outcome tonight.”
As for Darrow, while she is satisfied with a fourth consecutive win and a positive start to league play, the poor finish to the game stands out. This has been a recurring phenomenon over the extremely early part of the season and the goal now, in her own words, is to prevent the growth of the negative trend.
“We have to play beginning to end,” Darrow said. “I don’t think it’s because we know we have a lead. I don’t know if it’s fatigue setting in a little bit, we just slide backwards a little bit (at the end of games). We have to play until that last buzzer with the same intensity.”
Allegany-Limestone will travel to Southwestern for its next game, set for Dec. 16 at 7:30 p.m.
Olean will look to get back in the win column in its next game, set for Dec. 16 at 7:30 p.m. against Fredonia.
——
AT ALLEGANY-LIMESTONE
Olean (34)
Hirliman 7 2-2 19, Bohdanowycz 5 0-1 14, Lozynska 0 1-4 1, Finch 0 0-4 0. Totals: 12 3-11 34
Allegany-Limestone (45)
Kahm 4 1-2 10, Ortego 4 0-0 9, Frederick 2 2-3 6, Hayes 1 4-4 6, Giardini 3 0-0 6, Wojewoda-Ko 2 1-2 5, Potter 1 0-2 2, John 0 1-2 1. Totals: 17 9-15 45
OL 6 12 21 34
A-L 19 29 37 45
Three-point goals: OL 5 (Bohdanowycz 4, Hirliman), A-L 2 (Kahm, Ortego); Total fouls: OL 17, A-L 12; Fouled out: None.
