PORT ALLEGANY — In a clash between the top two teams in the North Tier League, Otto-Eldred shook off a slow first half to pull out a 50-38 win over Port Allegany and remain the only undefeated team in the league.

The Lady Gators came prepared against the Lady Terrors. Forcing a turnover on the opening possession, Port then breezed by O-E’s full-court-press and found Kayleigha Dowell for a triple. The Lady Gators kept up their defense and physicality, refusing to allow any easy passes or shots close, instead sending shooters to the line.

“We made some shots (early). The game is much easier when the ball goes into the basket,” said Port Allegany head coach Jamie Evens. “With this group of girls, I’m never concerned about our defense, I think we can guard anybody, it’s whether we’re making shots or not.”

Looking out of rhythm offensively and with jump shots from deep falling sporadically, the Lady Terrors found points by controlling the boards for second-chance opportunities. Bri Heller led the charge early, battling under the glass and finding herself on the finishing side of O-E’s pick-and-rolls.

Eventually finding their stride, the Lady Terrors gained the lead late until a half-court buzzer beater from Port’s Ella Moses knotted the game at 11 going into the second quarter.

Port again found success early in the second, knocking down a 3-pointer on its first possession and playing aggressive and smothering defense that stalled the Lady Terrors advance. The Lady Gators found a three-point lead at 16-13 with just under six minutes remaining, but could not hold on to it for long as the Lady Terrors continued to cash in on offensive rebounds as well as drawing fouls and scoring from the free throw line.

After holding the Lady Gators scoreless for the last three minutes, O-E entered halftime up 26-18.

“We need to just stay aggressive when we have the ball. Defensively, we wanted to make sure we ran their 3-point shooters off the line and not give up anything if we could,” said Otto-Eldred head coach Shawn Gray on his halftime adjustments. “Defensively, we talked about communicating. I don’t know if we did a great job of communicating. We’re working on a few new things and we’re not communicating them great.”

The Lady Terrors started to heat up in the third quarter. As their jumpshots started to hit the mark early, Port struggled to string together scores. Their desperation on offense manifested in fouls on defense, sending the Lady Terrors to the free throw line where they added points to the lead. A pair of made free throws from Katie Sheeler around the three-minute mark pushed the lead to 11.

However, the Lady Gators found some momentum late, with Evin Stauffer and Dowell connecting on three consecutive shots to close the gap to six points going into the fourth.

In the fourth, Port found itself in foul trouble. After keeping up with the Lady Terrors for the first several minutes, Sheeler grabbed a steal and was fouled on the other end, bringing her team into the bonus.

As the time ticked away, Port got more frantic on offense, forcing shots that failed to materialize into points. Along with their rushed effort on offense came several turnovers, with O-E cashed in on in transition to grow their lead.

With more fouls and more turnovers, the game was out of reach for the Lady Gators. Another pair of made free throws late sealed a 12-point victory for the Lady Terrors and handed Port its second NTL loss of the year.

“I told (my team) I hope you proved something to yourselves. I’ve been saying this all year but we’re still a fairly young team and a lot of the game is getting the confidence level to where we need to be,” said Evens. “We’ve proven against (O-E) twice now that we can be competitive.”

Sheeler led the Lady Terrors in scoring with a game-high 21 points while Heller and her work on the boards scored 10 points in the win. For Port, Kayleigha Dowell scored 14 points.

Sheeler 5 10-12 21, Merry 2 2-2 8, Close 1 0-0 2, Drummond 1 2-2 5, Rhinehart 2 0-0 4, Heller 3 3-11 10. Totals

Stauffer 2 3-4 7, Nelson 1 0-0 3, Moses 2 0-0 5, Dowell 5 1-2 14, Evens 3 2-2 9. Totals

Three-point goals: O-E 5 (Merry 2, Sheeler, Drummond, Heller), Port 6 (Dowell 3, Nelson, Moses, Evens); Total fouls: O-E 11, Port 22; fouled out:

JV: O-E won 24-21