ULYSSES — With shooting and depth, the Northern Potter girls basketball team defeated Oswayo Valley 32-23 in the opening round of the District 9 playoffs, securing their place in the quarterfinals.

The No. 8 Lady Panthers have had a beat on No. 9 OV all season, beating the Lady Green Wave in both of their regular season contests.

The game began slowly, with OV taking a slim lead after one. However, NoPo began to gather momentum in the second and carried that boost into the second half, where they outscored OV 14-5 with the help of four made 3-pointers. Along with their scoring, the Lady Panthers defense denied any easy shots, forcing OV’s offense to desperately search for jumpers without much results.

Despite the Lady Green Wave’s best scoring performance of the night, there was too large a lead and too little time left in the fourth quarter for a comeback, resulting in the end of OV’s season.

Reagan Slawson led the Lady Panthers in scoring with nine points, also chipping in three steals. Haylee Chapman scored eight points while Rebecca Martin recorded five points, eight rebounds, two assists and three steals.

For the Lady Green Wave, MaKenna Manning carried the brunt of the offensive load, scoring nine points in her final game of the season. Layken Enty ended with eight points and Eva West finished with five.

With the win, NoPo will go on to face another familiar face on Thursday: back-to-back North Tier League champions and No. 1 Otto-Eldred.

Manning 3 3-4 9, Enty 3 2-2 8, West 1 2-2 5, Austin-Keech 0 1-2 1. Totals

Slawson 3 1-2 9, Chapman 3 0-0 8, Martin 1 2-5 5, Thompson 2 0-0 4, Cady 1 0-2 2, Brown 0 2-3 2, Haynes 1 0-0 2. Totals

Three-point goals: OV 1 (West), NoPo 5 (Slawson 2, Chapman 2, Martin); Total fouls: OV 14, NoPo 13; fouled out

Paving the way for the Falcons was Lawson Wetzel with 12 points and Caleb Wonderly with seven. Trey Sykora led the Tigers and all scorers with 13 points.