Despite off night for stars, Oxford holds on to beat Unionville
EAST NOTTINGHAM >> Its leading scorer shot 0-for-7 from the floor and its top post player fouled out without scoring a point. And with a total of just seven made field goals, Thursday’s Ches-Mont American clash with visiting Unionville was a rough one for the Oxford girls’ basketball squad.
And yet, the Hornets still found a way to notch another close intra-division victory. Thanks to some late-game defensive heroics and a bunch of clutch shooting at the free throw line, Oxford survived, 38-32, to set up yet another Ches-Mont American showdown on Tuesday against West Chester Rustin.
[PHOTO GALLERY FROM THURSDAY’S GAME]
“It sounds like a cliché, but it was a team effort,” said Hornets’ head coach Brian Urig. “We talked at halftime that others were going to have to step up, and everybody pitched in.
“That’s what had to happen tonight for us to have a chance to win.”
Now 5-0 in league play (8-4 overall), Oxford will host the Golden Knights, who edged Great Valley, 53-46, on Thursday to improve to 4-1 in the division. Unionville falls to 3-2, 7-4 overall.
“We had some struggles, so it was great we were able to pull this one out,” said junior point guard Madeline Williams, who scored five of her game-high 11 points from the line in the final minute of play.
“When you work hard and get everybody contributing, you can just find a way,” Urig added. “That’s our mantra. Nobody is looking at their scoring stats, they are just looking at the scoreboard.”
The Indians did a masterful job defensively on Hornets’ star Miranda Porretta, but the sophomore guard was able to knock down seven of eight free throws down the stretch. In all, exactly half of Oxford’s points came from the line, including 14 of 22 points scored in the second half.
“We think we can be successful going to the basket, so we were trying to attack,” Urig said.
Unionville actually connected on four more shots from the field but were outscored 19-6 from the line. And the attempts were even more lopsided (28-9).
“We just didn’t get to the basket,” Indians’ head coach Fred Ellzy pointed out. “We went to the foul line twice in the second half — you just can’t win like that.
“It means that our players need to be more aggressive and get to the basket, and not just settle for jump shots.”
Despite scoring just a single point in the second quarter, Unionville scored seven straight early in the final period to take the lead, briefly. That’s when the Hornets staged a 5-0 mini-rally to retake the lead for good.
A defensive rebound and put-back by Maddie Shanahan sliced the Oxford lead to 31-30 with 1:41 remaining, but the Hornets went on to score seven of the game’s final nine points. Williams knocked down a couple free throws with 37.7 left, and then the Indians were unable to inbound the ball against full-court pressure, forcing a five-second violation. On the ensuing possession, Williams added another free throw, upping the Oxford lead to 34-30.
“I tried to call a timeout, but it wasn’t in time. I don’t expect our players to make that call — that’s my responsibility,” Ellzy said.
“Our defense was very strong in this game, and that helped,” Williams added. “That five-second call was big. We haven’t done that in the while.”
The Hornets forced two more turnovers in the final 20 seconds, and Oxford closed it out by burying its last four from the line. For the game, the Hornets forced Unionville into committing 16 turnovers.
Senior guard Emily Shallow finished with 10 points for Oxford, and Porretta chipped in nine — all from the line and in the second half. Multiple-year starting center, Grace Hennessy, was held scoreless and fouled out.
“We’ve been preaching defense since July, and the girls are really starting to buy in,” Urig said. “They are recognizing that defense can bail you out of situations when your leading scorer isn’t scoring and your big girl has fouled out.
“With Grace (Hennessy) sitting down and Unionville focusing so much on Miranda (Poretta), we had to have some of our other players pick up the slack, and they did.”
Shanahan scored a team-high 10 points off the bench for the Indians and Grace Schrof added eight. Most of the defensive work against Porretta came from guards Sophia Detweiler and Sam Ciccarelli.
“Their defense was strong, but (Porretta) knocked down her free throws. She realized she wasn’t hitting her shots, so she helped in other ways,” Urig said.
“That was our game plan,” Ellzy added. “If they wanted to beat us, they were going to have to beat us with somebody else.”
Oxford 38, Unionville 32
Unionville 12 1 7 12 – 32
Oxford 10 6 5 17 – 38
UNIONVILLE: Detweiler 2 3-4 7, Ciccarelli 1 1-2 3, Shanahan 4 1-2 10, Budow 2 0-0 4, Schrof 3 1-1 8. Totals 12 6-9 32.
OXFORD: Williams 2 7-8 11, Shallow 3 0-4 10, D’Aquanno 0 1-4 1, Hennessy 0 0-0 0, Porretta 0 9-10 9, Herrin 1 0-0 3, Hampshire 1 2-2 4. Totals 7 19-28 38.
3-point goals: Shanahan, Schrof, Shallow 2, Herrin.
