Lady Wolverines fend off Corry’s late 4th quarter rally to collect fifth win in first six games

Written By Chris Brooks

BOLIVAR — For anyone that may not know the recently-founded history between the Corry Lady Beavers, who hail from northwestern Pennsylvania, and the Lady Wolverines of Bolivar-Richburg, there is a local tie that binds it all together — Meghan Sisson, a Bolivar-Richburg graduate who carved her path to the likes of Corry, Pennsylvania, where she eventually found her way to head coaching the Lady Beavers girls varsity basketball program.


Lady Wolverines head coach Justin Thomas says without the local tie between the teams, this series may have never happened.

“It’s cool to have those kinds of ties to these games,” he said. “These two games never happen if we didn’t have those ties with Coach Sisson. It’s really cool to have Aliyah (Cole) on the team, who is related to Meghan, and seeing those relationships between her and her hometown community. Even coming back here, it’s a pretty cool feeling to see her back on her old stomping grounds after she moved away.”

It’s a newly minted matchup that began early last season when Bolivar-Richburg faced Corry over the road, putting together a rally that ultimately fell short, with win number one being awarded to the Lady Beavers.

Saturday afternoon, it was Coach Sisson’s turn to come home, as the Lady Beavers and Lady Wolverines fought straight down to the wire this time around. In a game that saw physicality, some great defense, and a little bit of everything in between on both sides, Bolivar-Richburg entered the fourth quarter with a seven-point lead, which was quickly trimmed to three before finding its way to a tie with under a minute left.

Then, Cole and McKinlee Harris stepped up for the hosts in white and red to break that tie, as Bolivar-Richburg ended the afternoon with the last four points, including Cole’s go-ahead lay-in with 30 seconds left to play to give them the 36-32 edge over Corry.

“The girls played a physical brand of basketball that we have not seen in quite a few games,” said Thomas. “We haven’t seen that since our opener at Canisteo-Greenwood. We handled the pressure for the most part, even though there were quite a few shaky moments here and there. We just needed a nice dogfight.”

For the most part, the game certainly had that dogfight type of feeling, as Bolivar-Richburg (5-1) jumped out with the day’s first basket from Madigan Harris that came well over two minutes into the opening period. From there, each team delivered back-and-forth blows that conclusively saw Corry jump in front with a 10-9 lead heading to the next period.

In said period, the Lady Wolverines established their first big run, scoring the second quarter’s first four points with assistance from Cole and McKinlee Harris working down low. A basket from Corry snapped the run, only for Bolivar-Richburg to tally three more points to cap off what came to be a 7-2 run through the frame to take a narrow four-point advantage at the half.

At the start of the third quarter, a challenge from Thomas was brought forth to his girls — control the first four minutes.

It was a bumpy go of it at first, but through that time frame, the Lady Wolverines came through on their promise with six of the quarter’s first nine points in their back pocket to extend their lead to seven over the Lady Beavers. A chance was granted for Corry to cut the lead down to five, but it was extended back out to seven in time for the third quarter buzzer, as Kelsey Pacer put away a big second chance opportunity after an initial miss from Cole under the basket.

The fourth quarter became the most exciting eight minutes of basketball throughout the contest, as Corry struck while the iron was hot in the first 50 seconds with five consecutive points on back-to-back transitions.

“The third quarter, I was very happy with,” Thomas said. “But when the first few seconds of the fourth quarter came, I got a little bit on edge. They had a big three-pointer, and then a quick lay-up in the first minute, and our lead goes from seven down to two. I told the girls that the pressure was on them. There were times where we had to play like the pressure was on us, and that’s the habit of not being in that situation quite often.”

After Corry closed the gap to a pair, a few Lady Wolverines rose to the occasion to keep the team in the driver’s seat for as long as possible. The Harris sisters along with Pacer helped scavenge six straight points on three consecutive possessions to garner an eight-point, 30-22 lead for the hosts with under five minutes left to play.

Bolivar-Richburg can thank their rebounding department for that.

“Thankfully, the rebounding is what keeps us in games a lot,” Thomas said. “What I told the girls was we needed a game like that. When there would be times when a rebound, a stop or basket would have been really nice, but when we really needed something like that, we got it. That’s the sign of a team that can do pretty special things going forward.”

The buffer zone was in tact for the next few minutes, but Corry eventually found their way around the Bolivar-Richburg defense by nailing back-to-back threes to tie the game with under a minute left, forcing a Bolivar-Richburg timeout.

After the brief stoppage, the Lady Wolverines went to work on icing the game. Nearing the 30-second mark, Kelsey Pacer and Aliyah Cole set up shop on an inbounds play in the Corry zone, dishing the ball off to a wide-open Amber Bucher outside the arc. The initial shot missed, but Cole picked up a big rebound to put away the go-ahead basket to keep them ahead for good, as McKinlee Harris nailed a daggering lay-in with 15 seconds to play to close up shop.

When it was all said and done, Cole led the Lady Wolverines with a team-high 13 points. Madigan Harris finished with nine points, while McKinlee Harris and Kelsey Pacer finished with six points each. Trinidy Miller had Bolivar-Richburg’s last two points on a shot inside.

The Lady Wolverines in their past two seasons under the guidance of Thomas, have finished with a record of 3-18 in each of them. The team is now one win away from matching their total win count since then, as their hot start continued with their fifth win in their first six games to head into the holiday break with a 5-1 record.

For Thomas, it’s something that will help his team continue to develop.

“To have a winning record at any point of the season is really nice, and it' is nice to take some time off now and work on some of the things in the first few games of the season that we’ve encountered,” he said. “With some wins and a good game like this now out of the way, this will all help us grow. We faced some foul trouble, and a lot of pressure in our face, we’ve seen it all. To see a little bit of everything can be a good thing.”

Bolivar-Richburg returns to the floor on January 6 after the holiday break, as they travel to visit the Hinsdale Lady Bobcats for a 7:30 p.m. tip-off.

Corry                        10  2  5 15 – 32

Bolivar-Richburg      9  7  8 12 – 36

CORRY: Skylar Reidel 0 1-4 1, Lexy Hasbrouck 1 2-2 4, Tayler Elchynski 1 2-2 5, Tessa Graham 2 1-2 5, Lexi Frisina 5 2-2 15, Miranda Nickerson 1 0-2 2. Totals: 10 8-14 32.
BOLIVAR-RICHBURG: McKinlee Harris 3 0-2 6, Madigan Harris 4 1-1 9, Kelsey Pacer 3 0-0 6, Trinidy Miller 1 0-0 2, Aliyah Cole 6 1-2 13. Totals: 17 2-5 36.

3-point goals: Corry 4 (Frisina 3, Elchynski).
Total Fouls: Corry 17, B-R 13. Fouled out: Riedel (COR).

Chris Brooks
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