(Photo from Cortland Voice photo archives).
The Marathon varsity girls basketball team was on the road for the fourth time out of their first five contests to take on IAC North foe Moravia last night.
The Lady Olympians would rally in the second half to beat Moravia 40-36.
The game started out with Moravia’s pressure defense holding Marathon to poor shooting, and therefore making it an unattractive first and second quarter for the Lady Olympians.
The Olympians would finish with a season low of 8-points in the first half of play. The only consolation was that Moravia would only score 16-points in the opening half.
“Sometimes it happens, Moravia is well coached and we didn’t play well in the first half,” said Marathon head coach Andrew Pierce.
Coming into the second half, sophomore Brooke Tillotson would start to get hot in the third quarter after scoring nine points in the quarter for Marathon to help Marathon get back into the game. However, the third quarter ended with the score still in favor of Moravia 29-17.
The fourth quarter would be a back and forth affair that saw Marathon’s pressure defense hold Moravia to nine points while Marathon would score 18 in the final frame. With 10 of those points coming from Tillotson.
“Our defense stepped it up in the second half,” said coach Pierce. “I’m very proud of the girls for never giving up.”
Both Madison Clark and Kristi Walley dominated the paint in the second half, by challenging shots and collecting rebounds.
Tillotson had 19 second half points, 22 on the night. A big 3 point shot from senior Molly Merihew and clutch free throws from Abby Ensign helped seal the 40-36 Marathon victory.
Marathon moves to 2-1 in league play and will be taking on Whitney Point at Marathon high school this upcoming Friday night of December 20th, 2019. The game is scheduled to start at 7 p.m.
