The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
VVS, Oneida girls meet for TVL tilt
ONEIDA, N.Y. >> The first time Oneida and VVS met this season, Katie Nestler’s Oneida side rallied from a halftime deficit with hot shooting from beyond the arc to steal a 56-51 win from their longtime rivals in Verona.
Friday, the top two teams in the Tri-Valley Pioneer Division met again.
This time, Oneida’s defense was the difference maker.
Oneida held VVS to single digits in the first three quarters of action, keying a 57-37 victory.
“The big difference tonight was the way we played defense. Our defense was staggering. We really kind of made them uncomfortable,” Oneida head coach Katie Nestler said.
Sophomore Ella Rainbow scored 13 of her game-high 22 points in the second half to lead the Oneida attack. Like her coach, Rainbow was most impressed with her team’s defensive effort.
“All around, we all played well on defense. We knew who we had to shut down and each player we did,” Rainbow said. “We are just going to have to keep playing together as a team, play defense.”
Senior Lauren Skibitski added 13, and freshman Kaylin Curro
“The big difference tonight was the way we played defense. Our defense was staggering. We really kind of made them uncomfortable.”
— Katie Nestler, Oneida head coach
followed with 12 to balance out the Oneida offense. Sydney Lusher was solid at the point for Oneida, handing out six assists to go with six points.
“Sydney Lusher is a stat queen, we call her. She does things that we say ‘wow’ to sometimes. She is just such a steady, steady point guard that can do so much from rebounding to finding open players to scoring,” Nestler said of her point. “She’s howwe go. She’s our engine that gets us going and keeps us going. She’s playing some solid basketball right now.”
Senior Alexa Kiser paced VVS with 14 points.
“Offensively, we struggled today. Defensively, we held them to about the same amount of points [as the first meeting]. We didn’t
finish well underneath the basket, and it showed,” VVS head coach Randy Thomas said. “Give all the credit to Katie and Oneida. They did a good job preparing. They are a solid team.”
After stumbling out of the gate with a loss in the season opener, Oneida entered the game with an eight-game win streak and was ranked the No. 10 team in the state according to the New York State Sportswriters Association.
VVS opened the season on a nine-game win streak before falling to Oneida in Verona prior to the Christmas break, but still boasted an 11-2 record and the No. 22 spot in the state rankings prior to tip on Friday.
After a back-and-forth first quarter, Oneida began to separate midway through the second quar- ter of play. With a 17-15 advantage, Skibitksi drove the baseline for a layup. Lusher hit a streaking Rainbow in stride on a lengthy outlet pass on Oneida’s next score to push the lead to six at 2115.
A Lindsey Foster 3-pointer brought the Red Devils back within three at the 3:00 minute mark, but Oneida answered back with a midrange jumper from Curro and another Lusher to Rainbow connection for a 25-18 lead at the intermission.
Out of the break, Oneida continued to pull away. An Anna Rossi layup pulled VVS within seven points at 27-20 in the opening minute of the third before Oneida tore off a 15-4 run.
Skibitski knocked down a 3-pointer to get things started, and Curro fed Rainbow for an old fashioned three point play on the hosts’ next score. Rainbow followed with another lay-in, this time on an as- sist from Lusher, to prompt a VVS timeout with Oneida up 35-20.
Out of the timeout, Rainbow and Red Devil sophomore Lindsey Carrier each split a pair of attempts at the line before Skibitski netted two more buckets. Grace Coulter capped the Oneida run with a hoop to make it 4221 in favor of the hosts. Kiser converted an and-1 play for VVS to close the third frame at 42-24, but the visitors never got closer than 15 the rest of the way as Oneida closed out the 57-37 victory.