By SPENCER BATES
OLEAN, NY — In a low-scoring affair, the Allegany-Limestone girls basketball team secured its fourth consecutive win, surviving a big test from Olean by a 33-29 scoreline.
Consistent offense eluded both sides for a grand majority of the affair. The Gators, overall, made just eight shots from the field. The Huskies made 10, but at the half were yet to break single digits.
In the eyes of A-L coach Andrea Darrow, her side’s struggles to find a rhythm on the offensive end came as a result of self-inflicted wounds. Her players clogged up driving lanes and brought defenders too close to teammates trying to attack one-on-one. This led to botched possessions and allowed Olean to cling on.
“Especially after our last game, this was much tighter and much closer than I anticipated,” Darrow said. “We couldn’t really get much going on offense and I kind of attest (how close the game was) to that.
“Tonight we tried to isolate players inside, and we weren’t really all on the same page there. When we needed players to stay out of (the paint), we were cutting in and taking away the space we were hoping for.”
On the flip side, Olean head coach Chelsea Bowker could not have been much happier with the tenacity her team showed on the defensive side of the floor. Forcing the Gators, who average just under 47 points in the games they have won this season, to try and fight in a low-scoring game is exactly what she wanted as defense has become the calling card of her team.
“We might not be able to score many points on offense, but to win games, we have to make sure we limit (the opponent’s) offense as well,” Bowker said. “They’re really digging into that. I think our man-to-man defense is looking great. My girls are talking and they’re actually starting to take a little bit of pride in it. That’s nice to see.”
Olean’s Alaina Hirliman (4) puts up a floater in the face of an Allegany-Limestone defender. Hirliman scored a game-high 14 points for the Huskies in their loss to the Gators. (Spencer Bates)
That being said, the Huskies were fortunate in the sense that they turned the ball over a significant amount, but the Gators were just simply unable to score from those opportunities. Darrow acknowledged that played a big role in her side not being able to ever truly get comfortable in the game.
“Our press, we do really well in it, but we don’t necessarily score immediately off of it,” Darrow said. “So if we could have done that right, we would have been ahead by a lot at the beginning. I think that’s something we need to look at film and adjust and see what we can do from there to score off of those turnovers.”
And it would only be so long before those missed chances at running up their score would come back to haunt the Gators.
Bowker noted that at the break she challenged her players to do something they had not been able to do all season: win a third quarter. Down just 10 points, she knew this game was there for the taking. And by doing the exact thing A-L was unable to do, score points off defensive stands, Olean did just that, cutting its deficit to just five with a quarter left to play.
“Huge credit to my team,” Bowker said. “I challenged them in the locker room, and they finally came out and won a third quarter. That was the first time we won a third quarter all year. I’m super proud of them. I was able to call timeouts, we ran some plays and they followed through on them. We had a couple shots and it just didn’t go our way, but I’m super happy with the way they played. Our defense was great, it was a low-scoring game. We don’t score a lot of points anyway and Allegany does. I thought our switches were great, our rebounds were great. Our girls did exactly what I wanted them to do.”
The Huskies brought the game within just one point in the fourth quarter, but some buckets from the Gators at a critical time put them just far enough out of reach.
So, while it may not have been the prettiest win, A-L was still able to put a fourth straight tally in the win column. And heading into the home stretch of the regular season, Darrow hopes that this recent run of victories, and the experiences that came with them, can catapult them to a strong finish.
“We’ve still got some tough league games leading into the playoffs and I really feel that, tonight aside, we have played well and we have looked good,” Darrow said. “We have been finally getting some things that we’ve been working on for a long time. So, just to see that carry through to the end of this season would be amazing.”
As for Olean, it was another loss, but with all of the things that have gone against her team this season considered, Bowker is pleased with the effort she is getting from her squad.
“Early in the season, we had Alaina (Hirliman) out, my team fought through that,” Bowker said. “We have Anna (Bates) fighting her knee battles, she did great tonight. So, there has been adversity, because after you take those two out, we got two more seniors and the rest are young kids. And they’re working hard for me.”
Up next for Allegany-Limestone is a tough challenge, in the form of Southwestern, which is unbeaten in CCAA Div. I play this season. The Gators will host the Trojans on Jan. 27 with tip-off slated for 7:30 p.m.
As for Olean, it will travel to Fredonia for its next game, set for Jan. 26 at 7:30 p.m.
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AT OLEAN
Allegany-Limestone (33)
Kahm 3 0-0 7, Frederick 1 5-8 7, Ortego 2 2-2 6, Hayes 1 2-2 5, Giardini 1 2-4 4, Wojewoda-Ko 1 1-1 3, John 0 1-2 1. Totals: 8 13-19 33
Olean (29)
Hirliman 5 3-4 14, Finch 2 4-6 8, Brown 2 0-0 4, Bohdanowycz 1 0-0 3. Totals: 10 7-10 29
A-L 9 19 24 33
OL 4 9 19 29Three-point goals: A-L 2 (Hayes, Kahm), OL 2 (Bohdanowycz, Hirliman); Total fouls: A-L 12, OL 18; Fouled out: Jones (OL).
