1/9 Most Valuable Thoughts: Oriskany/Herkimer Girls Hoops

Oriskany 49, Herkimer 37

It was certainly a tale of two halves in Herkimer on Thursday night. Oriskany had a stronger 2^nd half than Herkimer’s 1^st half, and they took home a nice road W to add to their belt.

The Magicians started off the game ready to defend home court. Chelsea Jory scored on the first possession of the game, and she continued with the hot start throughout the 1^st quarter. She scored 8 of Herkimer’s first 9 points, and although Oriskany played with Herk to start the game, the home team went on an 8-0 run to create separation late in the quarter. After a Jordan Sahl free throw cut Oriskany’s deficit to 2, Herkimer got 4 buckets while holding the Redskins scoreless for over 3 minutes, taking a 19-9 lead in the process. It was 19-10 after 1 – Jory had 10 points for Herkimer, Madison Zizzi 7 for Oriskany. Herkimer shot over 50% at 9/16, Oriskany under 16% at 3/19. In the 2^nd quarter, Herkimer extended the lead to 13 on two different occasions, both on Jory buckets. After the 2^nd occurrence, with the score at 25-12 with 4:28 left in the half, they went on their first of a few long droughts. The Magicians were outscored 10-2 the rest of the half, with only a Hannah DeLude bucket to show for the last 4:28 of the 2^nd quarter. All 10 points for Oriskany were scored by post players – 4 apiece from Sahl & Morgan Wolanin, and a bucket from Lexi Drake – and a toilet bowl special from Wolanin with 4 seconds left in the half cut the deficit down to 5 at 27-22. Oriskany shot only 8/33 in the first half, but Herkimer was unable to fully capitalize due to turning the ball over 17 times in the first 16 minutes.

A pair of Chelsea Jory buckets started the 2^nd half, and Herkimer looked poised to get control once again with their 9 point lead. However, a strategical move made the difference here. Oriskany HC Angela Meiss told her girls to man up on D instead of sitting back in a zone after the 2^nd Jory bucket, and Herkimer only scored 6 points… the whole rest of the game. That’s from 6:50 left in the 3^rd quarter until the final buzzer. 6 points. Get some of that action! After falling behind by 9, Oriskany went on a long 15-0 run to take the lead. Zizzi had 9 points in that run, and a bucket from her put the Redskins up for good at 33-31 with 2:40 left in the 3^rd. The scoreless stretch for Herkimer lasted 6:47, and Hannah DeLude finally put an end to it with a runner in the last 3 seconds of the 3^rd, cutting the deficit to 4 at 37-33. She also scored on the first possession of the 4^th to cut it to 2, and they hung around for a while in a 4^th quarter that was certainly offensively challenged. For the first 4+ minutes, the quarter score was Herkimer 4, Oriskany 3. A Brianna Parks bucket made it 40-37 with 4:14 to go, but Herkimer wouldn’t score again the rest of the night. The Redskins scored the last 9, 6 from Zizzi, and the team shot 7/8 from the free throw line in the 4^th, stretching the final margin to the largest margin of the night for Oriskany.

#ByTheNumbers – 4 big factors in this one. The Madison Zizzi outburst, free throw shooting, turnovers, and a defensive switch. For Oriskany, Zizzi went off. She had 27 points on the night, 18 of them in the 2^nd half where Oriskany outscored Herkimer 27-10. Herkimer didn’t do a good job of running her off the 3 point line, and she answered by hitting 4 treys on the night. Jordan Sahl added 10 for Oriskany, 8 of them coming from the free throw line. Oriskany shot 17/25 from the line on the night, including 12/15 in the 2^nd half. Herkimer shot just 1/6 from the stripe for the game. Chelsea Jory scored about half of the Magicians’ points on the evening, leading her team with 18 points, all of them before Oriskany switched to man-to-man with 7 minutes left in the 3^rd. Before they went man, it was 31-22 in favor of Herkimer. While playing man-to-man, Oriskany won 27-6. Oriskany did a better job taking care of the ball in the 2^nd half. After turning it over 9 times against Herkimer’s extended 3-2 that’s more of a 1-2-2 ¾ court press in the 1^st half, they cut that number down to 6 in the 2^nd half with only 1 of them being a Herkimer steal. Compared to Oriskany’s 15 turnovers, Herkimer coughed it up 33 times.

Neat-o Stat of the Night – Oriskany picked up a double-digit road W, even while shooting colder than the weather outside. They shot 14/58 on the night, and players not named Zizzi or Wolanin shot just 3/37. That’s under 25% as a team, and around 8% on the 2^nd shooting statistic. Their “hot” quarter was the 2^nd, where they went 5/14 as a team. Herkimer made 4 more field goals than Oriskany (18/49 – not blistering themselves), but the other factors in our section above gave the Redskins what it took to get a W.