By TIM TAYLORTioga County Sports Report
OWEGO — The Owego girls basketball team recognized its seniors in a 54-49 non-league win over Homer here Saturday, but not before things became interesting down the stretch.
Clinging to a 25-23 lead, Owego went on a 14-0 run which included the final nine points of the third quarter, then added to it early in the fourth.
Marielle Searles canned a pair of free throws and adde a basket while Jenna McEvoy scored in the paint and converted a conventional 3-point play to close out the third period, giving the River Hawks a 36-25 advantage.
Owego built a 42-25 cushion in the final frame on a Jenna McEvoy 3-pointer and free throw and a pair of Searles free throws.
Anna Gofkowski ended the surge with the first of three 3-pointers with 5:50 remaining, but Searles responded with a bucket and Jenna McEvoy followed with a pir of free throws, pushing the lead to 46-28 with 4:31 to go.
The Trojans would whittle away at that gap, scoring 15 of the next 19 points to narrow the margin to seven at 50-43. Makenna Pym scored eight points for Homer, Gofkowski hit another trey to highlight the rally. Meanwhile, Owego managed a pair of baskets by Jana Nikulich during the comeback.
The final 61 seconds saw Keely Wicklund hit a pair of free throws, and Jenna McEvoy and Ashlyn Dalton added one foul shot apiece to offset a bucket by Pym, Gofkowski’s final trey and a free throw from Kenadie Taylor.
“They kept up their pressure and actually extended it even a little bit more,” coach Luke McEvoy said. “Give them credit to play like we preach, play all 32 minutes. You never know what's going to happen.
“They started making some shots, but I thought our girls handled that well back to back. After playing last night, we got our legs back underneath us and just needed to make some simple decisions out there.“
The first half was a low-scoring affair. Homer worked an 11-9 edge in the first quarter behind eight points from Pym. Searles had four of the River Hawks’ points.
Owego held the Trojans to five points in the second period while scoring another nie to make it 18-16 at halftime. Searles and Jenna McEvoy scored four and three points, respectively, to lead the way, knocking down one three each.
“Nice day today with senior rec, so we got our seniors who have been with us either for several years or even in their first year out there early on and gave them some time and they all played well,” coach McEvoy said.
“I think, again revisiting a game from last night, quick turnaround, It took us a little bit to get our momentum going again, but we ended the second quarter strong. And then … third quarter was a big lift for us.”
Pym led all scorers with 20 points and Franco added 11.
Jenna McEvoy paced the River Hawks with 19 points and Searles tacked on 18 more. Dalton contributed five points, Nikulich and Wicklund chipped in with four apiece, Eva Crawford had two and Kaya Williams tacked on a free throw.
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IN PHOTO 1: Ashlyn Dalton. … PHOTOS BY TIM TAYLOR.
