Bradford, Vt.
Unless, apparently, it’s game time.
Parkin scored a game-high 14 points and helped lead the Olympians to a come-from-behind 52-44 victory over Hartford on Wednesday night at Oxbow’s Mona Garone Gymnasium.
“It’s definitely blindsided me,” Parkin said on her first few weeks with the varsity squad. “Playing with the older girls can be a little intimidating. Other than that, it’s been great.”
The Olympians (2-1) turned a five-point halftime deficit into a 25-6 run in the third quarter, as they applied enough pressure to rattle the still-winless Hurricanes (0-3). Oxbow head coach Barry Emerson said he’s grown to admire Parkin’s fearlessness.
“(Parkin) makes a lot of freshman mistakes,” he said. “But you’ve kind of got to smile when she turns around and goes right by people.”
Added Parkin: “Playing AAU definitely helped; (Oxbow coach Barry) Emerson made sure I was playing point guard, so I got used to everything. … Once I started playing point guard, I realized I had that speed. I’ve always been down low, always been the tallest girl. Now that I know that I have that, I use it whenever I can.”
For Hartford, the loss was another third-quarter collapse five days after succumbing to a second half rally by Springfield last week; it was outscored, 34-18, in the loss to the Cosmos and outscored, 33-22 against the O’s on Wednesday. Kennedy Mullen scored 13 points for the Canes, netting two shots from downtown. Jasmine Jenkins finished the game with 11 points and Carol North added nine in the loss.
“I thought we played well,” first-year Hartford head coach Heidi Bushway said. “Other than the third quarter, where we made some mistakes and we didn’t handle the press, I thought we played well. I’m proud of them.”
Hartford led, 11-10, after one quarter and 22-17 after two, finding its range with a 3-pointer by Beth Dobrich late in the first. The Hurricanes scored three 3’s in the second quarter — two from Mullen, another from Jenkins — to help build its lead. Oxbow managed only one field goal in the second stanza, scoring four of its six second-quarter points on free throws.
Then, the O’s turned up the heat.
Oxbow, with its full-court press on display, took the lead back with 52 seconds after the halftime break. Back-to-back points by Madison Fornwalt and Kaysea Neil in an eight-second span gave the O’s a 23-22 lead. They never looked back, going on a 27-6 run through the beginning of the fourth quarter.
“The message (at halftime) was we’ve got to want it more than they do,” Emerson said. “The first half, it just seemed like a lull. We weren’t finishing, we turned it over. It’s hard to score when you don’t shoot. So we decided to come out with some pressure defense in the second half. I think that made the difference. I think that was the key to the game.
“That was a great quarter for us. If we play two halves of basketball like that, we’re a good team.”
Hartford found its game again in the fourth, answering with a 14-7 run before running out of time. Oxbow made three of its six free throws in the final 1:30 of the game, securing its second win of the season.
“They pressed us, they came out and pressed us,” Bushway said. “We just didn’t handle the press. That’s about it. After that (in the fourth quarter), we came back out and ran an offense, broke their press. … We made some errors. They’re young. We’ll get there.
“We’re just sick of losing.”
Melanie Neil added nine points for the O’s, who were 8-14 overall last winter, and reached the VPA Division III quarterfinals before falling to eventual champion Windsor. Kaysea Neil had seven points and Lauren Wright scored six.
“We’re forming. We’re trying to figure it out, still,” Emerson said. “We’ve got a lot of moving pieces. The kids are not really sure where they are in the pecking order.”
Both teams return to action on the road on Saturday, with Oxbow at Rivendell and Hartford at Thetford.
Josh Weinreb can be reached at jweinreb@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.