The Cortland girls basketball team won its second game in as many days Saturday, beating Chittenango 59-45 at Cortland Jr./Sr. High School. The win improved Cortland’s record to 5-10 and was its highest scoring effort of the year.
Gabby Brown and Aubree Larkin led the Purple Tigers with 11 points each. A big effort was made to get Brown and touches in the paint, where they could lean on her size and strength to get good looks and easy baskets.
“Gabby’s just been working every day on trying to get those looks,” head coach Janice Meyer said. “This is probably her biggest game of the season. In the second half, she really capitalized on those moments, putting the ball in the right place off the glass and taking her time to finish.”
Larkin scored seven of her 11 points in the first half, also hitting a layup with just over 30 seconds to go in the third quarter to give Cortland a lead it never relinquished. Larkin added eight assists, consistently handling the ball and leading the offense down the stretch on Saturday.
“She finds everything,” Meyer said. “She’s really blown me away with her leadership abilities, playing for me for as many years as she has, all winning seasons, so it’s definitely been an adjustment. She’s my floor leader in a lot of ways.”
Cortland’s record sits at 5-10 after the victory and Larkin, a senior, hasn’t been used to losing this much in her career. Saturday’s game looked like it could be more of the same for the Purple Tigers, as a sluggish first half led to a 32-29 halftime deficit.
Zee-Anna Sweat delivered eight points and made multiple high-effort defensive plays to steal possessions that kept Cortland afloat early. Lily Yang (10 points) and Katie Harris (9) also had major contributions in the high-scoring effort.
When it became time to make the big plays, Cortland turned to Larkin and Brown. After Brown hit a transition layup to cut Chittenango’s lead to three with 2:19 remaining in the third quarter, Meyer called a key timeout to preach the importance of getting the ball in the paint and getting advantageous looks.
“Getting the ball into the paint and scoring has kind of been a little bit of our nemesis this year,” Meyer said. “We were down Kartyr (Hubbard), and she’s a big presence for us on the inside. So I think it just took Gabby and Nora (Gambitta), any of us, time to get loose in there and see how it felt.”
After the timeout, Cortland went on an 8-0 run between the final two minutes of the third and its first possession in the fourth. Brown and Larkin delivered all eight.
Gambitta had 4 points, all in the fourth quarter. Ava Turner and Lily Tinker each added 3 points, with Turner’s coming on an and-one layup with 2:38 remaining to seal the victory.
The Purple Tigers have five games remaining, with the next four coming on the road. They’ll use this game as a building block for a tough stretch ahead.
“We know what we’re up against,” Meyer said. “We lost a lot last year and we have just been building every day and getting better and better. We know what we’re up against with our schedule, so just keep things quarter by quarter, minute by minute, game by game so we can stand a chance in mid-late February.”
Cortland will look for its third straight win at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Westhill.
