Marathon girls beat Southern Cayuga for the second time this season

The Marathon varsity girls basketball team hosted Southern Cayuga on Tuesday night after narrowly pulling out a one point victory against them last Saturday

The rematch started out the same way the first contest ended. Southern Cayuga started the game with a stingy man-to-man defense that  would hold Marathon to just seven points in the first quarter. Marathon was outscored in the quarter 7-13 with Southern Cayuga’s Avery Colton netting eight points on her own.

Marathon would close the gap with some balanced scoring in the second quarter. Madison Clark and Abby Ensign each connected from the floor, while Junior Brooke Tillotson would chip in the six points in the quarter. Southern Cayuga held a 17-20 lead going into halftime.

“Southern Cayuga was playing with energy and we were not,” said Marathon Head Coach Andrew Pierce. “I called on the girls to get more physical and pick up the energy in the third quarter. You cannot continue to let teams get two, three, and four shots each possession and expect to win.”

Marathon then picked up the pace on both ends of the court, scoring 15 points and holding the Southern Cayuga Chiefs to only five points in the third quarter. The Olympian advantage at the end of the third quarter was 32-25. 

The fourth quarter belonged to Marathon’s defense, led by Senior Brooklin Drake’s energized play at the top of the Olympians 2-3 zone.  

“Brooklin stepped it up on defense for us and the other girls followed suit, including first year player Kate Anderson who gave us quality minutes coming off the bench. It was great to see,” said Coach Pierce. 

Tillotson scored all nine of Marathon’s points in the final quarter; but that was more than they would need as the defense would smother any hopes for Southern Cayuga; giving Marathon the 41-27 victory. 

Tillotson led all scorers with 27 points on the evening. Following Tillotson were Madison Clark with eight points and Abby Ensign with six points for Marathon. 

Tillotson’s 27 point evening has moved her up to #3 on Marathon’s All Time Scoring list with 1,194 career points, passing the 1,173 career mark of Hilary Matson.

Up next, the Marathon Olympians (6-0) will take on the Homer Trojans (3-2) on Thursday (February 25th) at 6pm for an exciting Cortland County matchup.