Lady Oracles lose close contest to Frontier Falcons
By Todd Swank

Brianne Stauffer drives and scores a bucket for the Lady Oracles. Bill Stauffer photo

Despite a 2-6 record the Lady Oracle’s game against a 5-1 Frontier Falcon team was well played with the exception of a third quarter that saw a tie at halftime become a nine point deficit going into the final period. The lead was too big to overcome and the Oracles came up short, 37-30.

Frontier started the game with a three-point shot by Erin Heath. Haley Richardson was the first Oracle to score, making the score 3-2. Brianne Stauffer hit a trey to put the Oracles up 5-4. The Oracles would score no more in the opening period as the Falcons took a 10-5 lead.

It took Kayla Yates 20 seconds to cut the lead to three (10-7) with a basket. A free throw by Erika Hawn and a basket by Hannah Strasser pulled the Oracles to within two at 12- 10. Trailing 14-10, the Oracles scored the next six points of the game, buckets by Yates and Hawn, along with a pair of free throws by Hawn, gave the Oracles the lead, 16-14. Frontier tied it at 16 just seconds before the buzzer.

Frontier came out of the locker room with a full court press that shut the Oracle offense down. To the Oracle’s credit their defense played just as well, limiting the Falcons to only four points through the first five minutes of the quarter. Frontier led 20-16 when Yates scored for Delphi at the 2:48 mark. It took Frontier eight seconds to get that score back. They scored five more points in the remaining time to take a 27- 18 lead into the final period.

The lead would reach 11 at 29-18 before the Oracles would begin a rally, scoring eight in a row, a pair of three pointers by Hawn and Stauffer and a deuce by Hawn. The Oracles were only one possession down with nearly three minutes to go. They were still only one shot behind at 31-28 with less than a minute left in the game and at 33-30 a short time later.

The Oracles fouled and all Frontier had to do was to hit their free throws. Frontier went 4 for 4 to seal the victory, 37-30.

The Oracle JV lost a close one, 25-24. Burge led the

Delphi team with 14 points. Evans added 6 and Lake and Oliver had two each.