Lady Oracles lose thriller at Frontier
By Todd Swank Contributing sportswriter

The Lady Falcons of Frontier High School stormed back from a halftime deficit to take the lead in the third quarter on the way to a 47-44 victory over the Oracles.

The officials established early that they were not going to call many fouls. On many occasions an Oracle player appeared to be hacked on the arm with no whistle. Frontier was called for only eight fouls in the game while the Oracles were called for 13. Despite the officials leaving their whistles in the dressing room, the Oracles had a chance to win the game but couldn't get it done down the stretch.

Delphi and Frontier kept it close in the opening period. Delphi managed to open a seven point lead at 13-6 on an Erika Hawn trey with one minute on the clock. Frontier made consecutive baskets to make the score 13-10 at the end of one. Five Oracle players scored with Hawn leading the way with five.

Nicole Firebaugh of Frontier tied the game at 13 to open the second quarter. Delphi would slowly begin to pull away. A 15-15 tie at the 4:30 mark eventually would turn into 26- 19 halftime lead for the Oracles. Hawn had ten points at the half with Whitney Arion and Hannah Strasser adding six each.

The third period started much like the second ended. Arion hit a three to give the Oracles their biggest lead of the night at 31-21 after a minute of play. Frontier then got a hot streak going and scored seven in a row to close within three at 31-28. Kayla Yates scored a three pointer to stop the run temporarily but the Falcons stayed hot and finalized the comeback when they tied it at 34 each with two minutes to go. At the end of the third the Falcons led 38-37.

Frontier scored first in the final period. Hawn tied it at 40 with a long basket. A short time later the Oracles had the lead back at 43-42 when Amanda Schultz hit one of two free throws. That lead would be short-lived as the Falcons scored a basket on the ensuing possession. Delphi had a couple chances to tie the game but couldn't get the ball to fall and in the end was forced to foul to try to get the ball back.

Trailing 46-44 with 7.4 seconds left, Delphi had the ball out of bounds at the Oracle end of the court. The Frontier defense forced a turnover on a five second count to end any chance the Lady Oracles had.

The JV game was won by the Oracles, 22-9.