TULLY –– The Tully girls basketball team saw its four-game winning streak snapped in their regular-season finale on Thursday night, falling to Weedsport 69-33 at Tully High School.
Weedsport’s defensive pressure dictated the game from the start. The Wolverines disrupted Tully’s perimeter offense, intercepting passes and forcing the Black Knights into difficult situations. Weedsport capitalized on these mistakes, using its transition offense and interior scoring to build an early lead.
Tully trailed 15-4 at the end of the first and struggled to find rhythm against the Wolverines’ aggressive defense. The struggles continued in the second quarter, as Weedsport extended its lead to a 34-14 margin at the break.
Tully head coach Jeff Russell pointed to missed opportunities as the reason for the early deficit.
“(It was) missed layups and foul shots,” Russell said. “We missed multiple layups. We can’t dig ourselves in a hole against that team.”
The Wolverines continued to control the game in the second half, maintaining their defensive intensity while executing their offense with efficiency. Weedsport found consistent success scoring in the paint and finding open jump shots.
Russell felt his girls got things going a bit after halftime despite the deficit continuing to increase.
“It took us a little bit to get going, and we did a better job in the second half.” Russell said. “The biggest issue is making the right decisions. Our center was open more often than not under the basket, and we just did not get her the ball.”
Despite the loss, Anna Congelli continued to be a bright spot for Tully, leading the team with 12 points while adding three blocks on the defensive end. Congelli was active in the paint, battling against Weedsport’s interior defense and finding ways to contribute on both ends of the floor.
Sydney Arnott followed Congelli with five points, Ella Polak and Gwyn Wilbur scored four points each, Gabby Flatt and Anna Pierce both knocked down a 3-pointer and Emily Hall had two points for the Black Knights.
Tully remains in a good position heading into the Section III Class C playoffs, even with Thursday’s loss. Tully holds the No. 5 seed as of the end of play Thursday night and is in line for a third matchup with rival LaFayette.
With only one senior on the roster, Russell believes his young team has made strides this season, but still has areas to refine before the postseason.
“We have grown a lot in our ability to work in the transition game,” Russell said. “Now the next step is the game sense. It is the evolution of understanding time, score, space, who I should guard. That is high-level stuff.”
With a week before its first playoff game, Tully will focus on fundamentals and game situations in practice.
“We will go back to the basics –– a lot of defensive positioning, a lot of shooting, a lot of ball handling,” Russell said. “It’s what we have been working on for a while, situational positions.”
