Frank Speziale Photo

DELHI – Standing at the charity stripe, all pressure and eyes glaring at the shooter – that was the difference in the girls MAC Championship this past Saturday – as the Bainbridge-Guilford girls continued their season-long climb to a 20-0 overall record, while becoming back-to-back-to-back champions – each MAC championship win coming over the Delhi lady Bulldogs.

Plug and play any Bainbridge-Guilford basketball player on Feb. 18, and the confidence, concentration and clutch ability instilled by B-G head coach Bob Conway was apparent – as the champion lady Bobcats shot 66 percent going 16-24 in the game from the line, besting Delhi's 7-12 at 58 percent.

More impressively, in the second half of play the B-G girls shot 15-20 from free throw line – the 75 percent shooting from the line helped the lady Bobcats ensure a 57-43 win, while attempting to keep pace with the surging Bulldogs who outscored B-G down the stretch 14-13 in the fourth.

“Three in a row, all verses Delhi. We are young, but have worked hard in the off-season,” said coach Conway following the win Saturday night at SUNY Delhi. “This group has a passion to be successful, and works very hard to get there.”

Successful is an understatement for a roster that has mowed down nearly all of their competition thus far in the 2016-2017 season, while reaching an astounding 20-0 perfect record – now earning their third MAC crown in a row – while having a roster with only three seniors on it.

The win seemed to be in the cards early for B-G who marched to a halftime lead at 24-13 – following a 17 point explosion for the Bobcats in the second period, a period led in scoring by eighth grader Erica Selfridge who grabbed 11 of her 16 total points in the period.

However, Delhi head coach Todd Bruce had other plans in the second half. Bruce orchestrated a fantastic second-half game-plan for the lady Bulldogs who were down 11 points to start the final 16 minutes.

The Bobcats climbed to an impressive 29-21 with 4:25 left in the third quarter before the Bulldogs were able to make their mark – slightly cutting into the lead by outscoring B-G 16-14 in the period.

Down 38-29 and with only eight minutes to play – the once semi-comfortable lead started to slowly fall away as Delhi used smart play to shrink the lead to a 47-42 game, with mere seconds on the clock at :38.6.

That is when the ability as a high school student to pull yourself out of the emotional side of the contest and return to the fundamentals became ever so important.