There's nothing better than high school basketball to get you through golf withdrawal.

In less than 24 hours, I witnessed Oneonta High's boys win the Southern Tier Athletic Conference title on Friday, and then on Saturday saw Delhi's boys and Sidney's girls win Midstate Athletic Conference titles.

Though their approaches were different, the three teams had two things in common. They played tight, man-to-man defense and had at least three legitimate scorers.

When a team plays man-to-man defense, that tells an opponent "We think we're better than you. We think we can matchup with everyone you've got."

Conversely, when a team plays zone, it is usually trying to cover a weakness.

Having three scorers is important for two reasons:

• It's difficult for defenses to contain three offensive threats.

• It's unlikely that all three players will be cold on the same night.

Oneonta (19-1), which defeated Binghamton, 52-47, in the STAC final, has four proven scorers in Drew Martin, Geoff Bean, Mike Konstanty and Garrett Brignoli. Martin and Brignoli struggled offensively, but Bean and Konstanty combined for 37 points against the Pats.

As for Oneonta's defense, it held Binghamton scoreless for more than four minutes in the fourth quarter, turning a 44-38 deficit into a 50-44 lead.

Delhi (19-1), a 66-45 victor over Harpursville, relies on Sean Whittaker, Chris Clark and Sean Clark to handle a majority of its scoring. Whittaker and Chris Clark combined to score 48 points in the victory. Even though Sean Clark had an off night, just the threat of his perimeter shooting opened things for the Bulldogs.

Delhi's defense is scary, too. Carl Drake scored Harpursville's first basket 50 seconds into the game on a dunk off an inbound play. The Hornets' next field goal came with 25 seconds left in the quarter, a floater by Jeremiah McElwain that cut Delhi's lead to 23-9. All the while, bodies flew and referees' whistles received a stern workout.

Sidney (20-0) defeated Oxford, 64-48, in the MAC girls final. Backcourt mates Paula Jean Foote and Angela Mirabito combined for 37 points, and inside tandem of Jenny vanderMeulen and Sarah Wesner combined for 22.

The Warriors' defense was so mobile that at one stretch in the third quarter, Oxford had trouble simply trying to inbound the ball after a made basket.

Sidney held the Blackhawks without a basket for four minutes of the third quarter, after which it led, 44-28.

Oh, there's one other thing all three teams have — lots of underclassmen.

Oneonta has two juniors and a sophomore among its starting five. Delhi and Sidney have three juniors in their starting lineups.

For Oneonta, forward Jim Hurtubise is the consummate garbage man who made a significant turnaround Friday after being outplayed badly in the first quarter by Binghamton's Rob Kwiatkowski.

The Patriots took a 16-10 first-quarter lead and Kwiatkowski scored 10 points in the quarter — six on putbacks. He also blocked a handful of shots, including a couple by Hurtubise.

But thereafter, Kwiatkowski scored two points.

"I'm going to give credit to Jim Hurtubise," OHS coach Jerry Mackey said. "I know it looked early in the game like they were killing us on the glass, but a lot of times he had (the rebound) and lost it. He defended (Kwiatkowski) pretty well."

For Delhi, Brett Sohns and Mike Barnes are defense-minded players who help make the Bulldogs so tough to score against. Coach Dan Wagner can assign either to check a guard or forward and then forget about them.

Sidney senior Caitlin Graham did not score a point Saturday, but her impact was felt. She kept Oxford's Jill Post from becoming a threat inside and had several steals in the Warriors' 1-2-1-1 press. Stationed around midcourt for the press, Graham appears to bait players into thinking a player is open, and then uses her footspeed and long arms to intercept passes.

OHS had made one 3-pointer before Martin's shot late in the third quarter.

"We've shot those all year long," Mackey said. "In key situations, we don't get it to the block and post a guy up. We look for a drive and get a 3. That I continue to give them the freedom to miss a few, it gives them the courage to make a few when it matters."

"Geoff has been a warrior for us all year," Mackey said. "There's no one in Section Four ... I don't think I'd trade him for anyone in the state. He's been our leader all year."

Offensively, Bean came up big late in the second quarter. OHS went four minutes without a point and trailed, 27-13. Bean then scored five consecutive points on a pull-up in the lane, a spin in the lane and a free throw. That spurt allowed OHS to head into halftime with a workable 29-18 deficit.

"It's unbelievable," Bean said. "It's our first year in STAC and we're accomplishing so much. But we have to keep working hard and stay with the things that got us this far."

For STAC, making rosters available for the fans would be advisable. Binghamton fans probably weren't all that familiar with Oneonta this winter and vice-versa. I went early Friday to watch the girls STAC final between Owego and Whitney Point and had a hard time following things without a roster.

For MAC, having an area for reporters to sit would be nice. It's difficult writing notes when the guy behind me has his knee in the small of my back and whacks my shoulder after each basket.

Rob Centorani covers high school basketball for The Daily Star. E-mail him at rcentorani@thedailystar.com.