HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS BASKETBALL: SOUTHERN TIER SPLITS ON BCANY OPENING DAY (2022-08-06)

Southern Tier Sports Report
JOHNSON CITY — The Southern Tier overcame a tough loss in the opening game to finish 1-1 on the first day of the 10th Annual BCANY Summer Hoops Festival here Friday.

Southern Tier fell to Central, 68-61, in the first game, but came back to defeat North Country, 68-40, in the second.

CENTRAL 68, SOUTHERN TIER 61
Central placed three players in double digits to offset eight 3-pointers by the Southern Tier.

Leah Middleton led all scorers with 18 points, Navaeh Wingate put up 16 and Amarah Streiff tacked on 15.

Six Southern Tier players knocked down treys, including two each by Elmira’s Jalea Abrams and Oxford’s Madalyn Barrows. Edison’s Payton Littlefield, Owego’s Madison McEvoy, Union-Endicott’s Adriana Fontana and Gilbertsville-Mount Upton’s Hannah Bonczkowski contributed the others.

The Tier was led by a dozen points from Newark Valley’s Cha Gardner and 10 more from Abrams.

Littlefield, Barrows and Bonczkowski tallied seven points apiece. NV’s Hayley Beebe added six, McEvoy had five, Johnson City’s Marissa Smith chipped in with four and Fontana had three.

SOUTHERN TIER 68, NORTH COUNTRY 40
The Southern Tier team showed no ill effects from the earlier loss, opening the second game with a 13-1 run.

Moments later, a 10-point burst upped the advantage to 23-4. Beebe canned a 3-pointer with 36 seconds left in the half to make it 37-16 at the break.

A trio of first-half treys from North Country’s Rylin McAllister wasn’t much help as the Tier shut her down in the second half and continued to pull away.

All 12 players contributed to the Southern Tier scoring effort, paced by Fontana and Unions Springs’ Payton Gilbert with 11 points apiece, and Gardner with 10 more.

Bonczkowski scored eight, Sidney’s Ava Cirigliano had six, Barrows recorded five, Beebe and Smith added four apiece, McEvoy and Cherry Valley-Springfield’s Joleen Lusk added three each, Abrams had two and Littlefield had one.

Katie Conningham led NC with 10 points.

Southern Tier plays Buffalo at 2 p.m. and Mid Hudson at 5 p.m. today.

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PHOTOS BY TIM TAYLOR.