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STAC GIRLS BASKETBALL: OWEGO BLANKS HORSEHEADS IN SECOND QUARTER EN ROUTE TO 56-39 VICTORY (2018-12-06)

BY TIM TAYLOR
Tioga County Sports Report
OWEGO - The Owego defense put a goose egg on the scoreboard in the second quarter and held Horseheads' top player, Jillian Casey, to four points total. Unfortunately for the Blue Raiders, they were unable to return the favor against Owego's top threat - Kaci Donovan - as she led the Indians to a 56-39 victory here Thursday evening.

The 6-foot-1 junior guard scored 26 points and was complimented by a 17-point effort from 6-foot sophomore forward Evee Coleman.

The duo combined for the Indians first seven points of the night as Owego grabbed an early 7-4 lead, but Horseheads' Avery Snyder tied the game at 4:08 with a 3-point basket. It was the start of a 10-1 run that put the visitors up, 14-8, to begin the second period.

"We started kind of slow on both ends of the floor in the first quarter and we missed a ton of shots," said Owego head coach Lance McEvoy. "They came out right away playing hard like they always do."

Casey's lone basket of the quarter, with 11.9 seconds on the clock, would be the Raiders' last points until they finally found the bottom of the net 1:41 into the third period - breaking a drought that lasted almost 10 minutes (9:53).

That dry spell gave Owego an opportunity to get back in the game - and more. The Indians exploded for 20 consecutive points, including a 14-0 run in the second quarter in which Donovan put up eight points.

"We had to turn things around the second quarter, clamp down defensively," McEvoy said. "We kind of had a game plan coming info taking away their better shooter, Jill Casey, who's outstanding. I think the first quarter, the girls were so focused on some of our defensive rotations that they were a little over-rotating, so second quarter we kind of eased back on some things and played phenomenally well."

Horseheads applied heavy defensive pressure early on to put Owego in a hole, but its intensity faded as the Indians continued to make adjustments.

"I think early on it was a combination," McEvoy said. "Their defensive pressure is great. They rotate around defensively. They fly all over the place and some of our offensive positioning might not have been the best early in that first quarter, a lot of one-on-one movements that quickly turned into one-on-twos, one-on-threes with their defensive positioning. Then when we started moving the ball, moving players, it definitely opened things up for us."

The Indians took a 22-14 lead into the half and expanded their advantage to 28-14 in the third before Horseheads could score again. The Raiders would cut the gap down to 36-29 on Snyder's second trey of the evening at 1:51.

However, Coleman retaliated with a traditional 3-point play to push the lead back to 10. Following Casey's second and final bucket of the night, Anna Felice would get fouled on a 3-point attempt at the buzzer. The senior guard stepped to the foul line and sank the last two of her three attempts to give the Indians a 41-31 lead with one period left to play.

Owego opened the fourth quarter with a give-and-go between senior forward Ella Kopek and Felice, then Donovan added a bucket to make it 45-31 in the first minute of the period. Coleman's putback of a teammate's miss made it 47-31.

Following a trey by Horseheads' Lauren Augustine, Coleman and Donovan scored back-to-back to increase the margin to 51-34.

Owego responded to a pair of free throws from Horseheads' Brooke Thompson with two from Felice, another by Coleman and a basket from Lauren Angelone for a 20-point cushion, 56-36.

The Raiders' Carly Scott drained a three in the final seconds.

Donovan's night included 13-for-28 field goal shooting, five rebounds, three steals and two assists. Coleman was 7-for-11 from the field and 3-for-5 at the line. She also contributed seven blocked shots, six rebounds, two steals and an assist.

Felice scored eight points, went 6-for-9 at the stripe and added two steals, two rebounds and one assist; Kopalek had three points, five boards and an assist; and Angelone added two points, four boards and two steals.

Snyder led Horseheads with 10 points, Augustine had seven, and Scott and Jenna Nickerson added six apiece.

Owego (2-0) has Millennium, a PSAL school out of New York City, to the schedule for Saturday at 4 p.m.

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IN PHOTO 1: Owego's Larissa Fisher. ... PHOTOS BY TIM  TAYLOR.


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