By Robert Jeffrey
Sun Sports Contributor
HARPURSVILLE- The ever improving Oxford Blackhawks girls basketball team needed every second of the contest on Friday February 10th, when they visited the Hornets of Harpursville. Despite the Blackhawks lulled offensive production over the first three quarters of play, the girls from Oxford lit up the scoreboard seemingly in the final minutes of the game to propel them to another Midstate Athletic Conference win.
Harpursville proved to be a worthy opponent as the Blackhawks were held to a total of nine points in the first half and didn’t record a field goal until 2:18 left in the opening quarter. However, while the Blackhawk offensive effort slowed to a start, the Harpursville offensive didn’t kick in until the second period when the Hornets scored 11 points pushing their lead to a 17-9 advantage at the end of the first half.
Despite their offensive woes, the Blackhawks had done just enough to avoid a double-digit deficit and entered the second half focused on getting the win. While playing tic for tat with the opposing Hornets in the third the Blackhawks managed to equal Harpursville’s scoring output with both clubs scoring nine points in the stanza. With the score 26-18 entering the final period, the Blackhawks had a chance but they just needed to stop Harpursville.
Behind the heroics of Allison Beckwith who delivered all nine of her points in the game in the fourth quarter, helping Oxford methodically score point after point. Meanwhile, the Hornets feeling pressure on the offensive end to put points on the board, rushed their offensive sets and ultimately came away with six points in the final quarter. When the dust had settled from the fight between the two MAC foes, it was the Blackhawks who scored 16 points in the fourth who claimed victory.
The Blackhawk’s Beckwith and Hannah Ryan each scored nine points in the victory. Abbie Livermore and Sam Cower each scored seven points for the Hornets in the loss. Oxford returns to action as they play at Deposit on February 15th with game time scheduled for 6pm as part of the Midstate Athletic Conference Tournament.
