The Marathon varsity girls basketball team took the court for the second night in a row against Moravia on Friday. It was a much tighter affair this time around, as the Olympians cooled down from their hot shooting touch from the previous night.
Both teams struggled to score in the first quarter, but senior captain Madison Clark helped the Olympians gain some momentum with four of Marathon’s nine first quarter points. Clark finished the night with eight points.
"The girls worked hard on defense and that's the key for us," said Marathon Head Coach Andrew Pierce.
The second quarter belonged to Marathon junior captain Brooke Tillotson, as she started to ignite the offense with a deep three and a nine point outburst. Marathon extended their lead to seven (21-14) at the half with the help from freshman Abby Ensign chipping in with six points in the half.
Tillotson would continue to shoulder the load scoring 18 points in the second half, finishing the night with 29 points.
However, Moravia was not to be denied as they cut Marathon's lead to four in the fourth quarter; but that's as close as they would get, as Tillotson came up with a backcourt steal with 15 seconds left and was immediately fouled. She converted on 1 of 2 free throws to seal the 43-39 victory.
"It's tough playing the same team two nights in a row,” stated Coach Pierce. “Our girls worked hard and learned a lot tonight. The tough ones are when you learn the most."
Tillotson's 29 point night moved her to 5th place on Marathon's all-time scoring list with 1084 Career points, moving ahead of Gloria McAllister (1055 points) and Sam Courtney (1068 points).
Up next, Marathon (2-0) will travel to take on Whitney Point on Tuesday, February 16th at 5:30pm.
