Cortland Standard .net

The Cortland High girls’ basketball team made coach Dick Penoyer a happy man Tuesday night.
“It was a complete game, offensively and defensively,” Penoyer said in the wake of the Purple Tigers’ 50-41 non-league win over visiting Cazenovia.
“I told the kids that they should be proud of the way they played. Cazenovia is the biggest team we’ll play all season, 6-2, 6-2, 6-0 up front, and our big players did well. We rebounded well and really got after it on the boards. The kids hadn’t been that aggressive all year,” he added, as Cazenovia arrived at Shafer Gymnasium with an impressive 8-4 overall record including a 51-39 win over CHS back in November.
The rematch turned in the second quarter.
Each team scored 10 points in the first eight minutes before CHS (9-5) outscored the Lakers 20-7 in the next eight minutes to take a 30-17 lead into intermission, never looking back from that point.
“Erin Brown, who had a really good game, had two 3-pointers in the second, and we got a pretty good inside game going,” Penoyer said of his senior guard. “Our offense just started to click, getting the ball inside, and the kids played really solid defense. I told the kids that that was what I was most proud of.
“We did well with matchups. We took their big girl, Maggie Johnson out of the game, holding her to three points, all on free throws. The other girl we needed to watch, Audrey Burbidge, scored 21 points, so go figure,” he added.
The Purple Tigers got balanced scoring, led by junior guard Shea Swartwout, who sat out much of the first half in foul trouble but still scored nine points. Three players — Brown and senior forwards Chickie Artis and Delaney Marshall — scored eight points apiece, and yet another senior forward, Abby Hess, had seven.
Artis also had 12 rebounds and four steals while Hess had seven rebounds and five assists. The winners pulled down 34 rebounds in all.
“It was nice to get balanced scoring and points from some players who usually don’t score a lot,” Penoyer said.
Cortland hosts Syracuse CBA Friday, the JV game set to tip off at 5:30 p.m. The host Brothers scored a last-second 52-49 varsity win over CHS in the team’s first meeting, on Dec. 22.
CORTLAND JVs fell to 4-9 overall in a 49-25 loss to Cazenovia, eighth-grade guard Morgan Tabel with 11 points for the hosts. The Lakers got 25 points from Saige Ackermann and 12 from Jaime Joseph.