By James Champlin
Sun Sports Correspondent
ONEONTA – An old adage in sports proclaims the difficulty of one team beating another three times in one season. Someone forgot to tell that truism to the Lady Hornets from Harpursville in the Midstate Athletic Conference final versus Oxford. In front of a sparse crowd at the SUNY Oneonta Fieldhouse on Saturday afternoon, the Hornets cruised to a 48-27 victory to claim their fourth consecutive league title.
Harpursville, who rarely looked like the number one ranked Class C team in New York State on this afternoon, still opened the game on a 12-0 run. Oxford went scoreless until the 2:20 mark of the opening stanza, until a Jacquelyn Heggie layup, but would never get closer than eight the remainder of the game. Harpursville looked anything but worthy of its pedigree – a club that lost in last year's state final – as both teams slogged through the first quarter committing a combined 13 turnovers in the first eight minutes. Heggie also scored on the next possession as the quarter closed with the Hornets in front, 13-4.
As both squads continued to show trouble adjusting to the style of officiating, the turnovers and fouls began to mount. Midway through the second quarter, Harpursville's leading scorer, Miranda Drummond, exited the game with her third foul. Moments later she was followed to the bench by teammate and fellow starter Kayleigh Livermore, who also picked up her third foul. Oxford's Lacey Barry swished a 15-footer off a nice feed from Megan Golden to make it 16-6, but the Blackhawks’ foul shooting woes were about to surface.
Oxford missed all seven of its free throw attempts in the first half, and the final 30 seconds was a microcosim of the club’s shooting misery. Two hustle rebounds led to two free throws and a bonus attempt, all three clanking off the rim, followed by a missed layup, all in the same possession, as the half ended 24-12, Oxford on the short end.
The second half mirrored the first, as Oxford needed over three minutes to score, again on a Heggie layup, who ended the day with 14 points, the only Blackhawk with more than five points. Heggie's traditional three-point play at 4:09 of the third brought cheers from teammates and fans and closed the gap to 26-17. However, Oxford failed to score the remainder of the third as the turnovers and missed foul shots piled up. Savannah Murray hit a pair of three-pointers before the end of the third, and the contest was just about out of reach. “We had it within 10 points, and to that point, if we had made even 50 percent of our free throws, it’s a four-point game,” said Oxford coach Chris Palmer. “We might have been able to pressure them more in that situation, and it could have been a different game.”
On the day, the Lady Blackhawks committed 30 turnovers 18 in the first half – and shot 2-for-24 from the charity stripe. The final quarter saw Oxford reach double digit scoring for a quarter as lefty Emily Smith aggressively amped up her game to score all five of her points. Unfortunately, Harpursville also had itsmost productive quarter, scoring 15 points, as the Hornets again lofted the MAC plaque above their heads led by Murray’s 17 points senior Amanda Frayer's 15.
On a day that witnessed the final career league game for five Oxford seniors, Jacquelyn Heggie, and sister Julianne, Barry, Smith, and Brooke Noble the hustle and optimism just never matched the basketball execution necessary to bring home Coach Palmer's first coaching championship. “Harpursville is an athletic team that forced into a lot of mistakes,” Palmer said. “They were quicker and more athletic than any team we’ve faced in our league this year, and probably as quick and as athletic as any team since we played Norwich.
