STAC GIRLS' BASKETBALL: HORSEHEADS PICKS UP ROAD WIN AT ELMIRA (24 PHOTOS) (2025-01-25)

By Brian Fees
Southern Tier Sports Report
ELMIRA — It wasn’t the perfect game for the Horseheads girls’ basketball team, but in the end they did enough to stay unbeaten in STAC play with a 48-35 win at Elmira.

“Definitely always fun to play Elmira,” Horseheads senior Megan Wolf said. “Cool atmosphere to be in. We prepped really hard for them.

Horseheads led 33-19 at the half, and they were up 41-31 after three quarters. In the fourth the Blue Raiders struggled from the free throw line, going 5-for-15 in the quarter, 6-for-21 in the second half and 8-for-27 for the game.

While the Blue Raiders struggled with free throws, they turned up the defense, holding Elmira to four fourth-quarter points to seal the win.

While the free throw shooting wasn’t what Horseheads normally does, the team came together to close out the win.

“It’s not ideal for us,” Wolf said. “Free throws are usally something we do pretty well. But, it happens, games like this happen, you fight, you fight to the end and you get the win at the end.”

The Horseheads players knew they had to stay focused despite the struggles from the line.

“After we do that, we miss a few, we have to keep our composure and know we can stay together as a team,” Ribble said.

One thing that helped down the stretch was Jordyn Gross on the boards. The Blue Raiders center grabbed a number of offensive rebounds after missed free throws giving the Blue Raiders more chances.

“That was huge for us,” Wolf said. “She works realy hard on the offensive glass and for her to come in and get those extra possessions was big for us.”

With Sammy Bonnell out for the game with an injury, the Blue Raiders relied more on Ribble and Wolf to handle the ball.

“It was alright, they obviously were double teaming, so I just had to get it in and get it back to Megan,” Ribble said. “We felt conifdent, especially together.”

“Not having her, we missed not having her on the court,” Wolf said. “She’s a big part of our team, but we handled it well. Ribble did a good job of brining the ball up and Emma (Kamas) was a helper. We handled the pressure and broke the defense and got to the other end.”

Wolf and Ribble had faith in everyone on the team handling pressure.

“I feel like we knew there was pressure with it (Bonnell being out), but for me it wasn’t big,” Wolf said. “I knew she (Ribble) had it, I had her back and we could do it together.”

Horseheads started strong, leading 12-2 in the opening quarter. Wolf had 19 in the game, eight in the second quarter and Ribble had 12, five in the second. Gross had seven points, Kmas had five, Mya Piecuch had three points and Jessica Als, who started with Bonnell out, had two poionts.

“We came out and started the game strong today, it really set the tone for us,” Wolf said. “It realy set the tone early showing we are here to play.”

Wolf was happy to see what Als did in the starting lineup.

“She did really well,” Wolf said. “She was in there working hard. She did her job, everyone else does their job. Our bigs did really good today working down low.”

Addison Taft led Elmira with 13, Mariah Matias had 10 and Ashaya Wallce had eight points. Alyvia Woodruff had four points.
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PHOTOS BY BRIAN FEES

PHOTO GALLERY FROM THE GAME:


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