Spartans going for fourth straight crown
Southern Lehigh, led by senior stalwarts Snyder and Cassel, seeking Colonial League history
When Olivia Snyder and Ellie Cassel joined the Southern Lehigh girls basketball program as fresh-faced freshmen the Spartans were already pretty successful after decades of struggling to make a prolonged mark in the area.
Snyder and Cassel just helped it to a level that may never be surpassed as far as Colonial League honors at least.
Southern Lehigh will try to become the first team in league history to win four straight Colonial League championships when it begins semifinal play next week. Four programs, including Solehi from 2011-13, have won three league titles in a row in the 44-year old league.
Snyder and Cassel, the second 1,000-point teammates in Spartans history after Snyder joined Amanda Mobley last season, are not only talented but they’re durable as well. Neither has missed a game in her career.
They tied Mobley for participating in the most wins in school history when they won their 100th game on Tuesday when Cassel scored her 1,000th careerpoint. Southern Lehigh has gone 100-10 in their career, 69-1 in the league regular season, and 75-1 in all league games.
Snyder, a second-team allstate selection last season who will attend Georgetown University, is closing in on 1,900 career points with an outside shot at the 2,000-point plateau. She’s scored fewer than 20 points in just two games this season.
The 6-foot-1 Cassel has mostly been an underrated player in her career, often taking a back seat, but playing a pivotal role as a defender and rebounder before breaking out offensively this season and getting to the 1,000point mark in her last game.
In one of the highlights of her career Cassel kept the Spartans’ since-broken record 69-game league regular-season winning streak alive at Game No. 19 when she barely beat the buzzer with a rebound basket to defeat Palisades 43-42 in overtime during her freshman season.
Coach Matt Cooper, with a 121-14 record in his fifth season, could tie Nazareth’s Frank Krisch for the most overall titles as in league history. Krisch’s last title came in 1987.
The league playoffs begin Saturday with No. 6 Moravian Academy at No. 3 Northwestern Lehigh and No. 5 Wilson at No. 4 Bangor. In Tuesday semifinals at Catasauqua top-seeded Notre Dame takes on the MoravianNorthwestern winner at 7:30 p.m. and Solehi plays either Bangor or Wilson at 6.
The championship is set for 6 p.m. Friday at a site to be determined.
Prediction: Southern Lehigh over Notre Dame in title game.
All-star ballot: Snyder, Murphy, Saeger, Cassel, Ettle, Sevrain, Williams, Errico, Moore, Minner.
Eastern Pennsylvania Conference
Two-time defending champion Bethlehem Catholic, which did not play Northampton, Parkland or Central Catholic during the regular season, is the top seed in the conference playoffs and will play Pleasant Valley in Friday’s quarterfinals.
Skyline Division winner Northampton saw its 13-game winning streak, its third-longest streak in the last 50 years, snapped rather convincingly by Parkland, 54-34, last week. But the K-Kids clinched the No. 2 seed in the playoffs by beating Central Catholic 55-44 and will play the Vikettes again in the quarterfinals.
Third-seeded Nazareth will meet No. 6 Pocono Mountain West, which defeated Pleasant Valley 49-33 to win the Mountain Division, and No. 4 Freedom will host No. 5 Parkland in the other quarterfinal games.
Freedom handed the Golden Hawks their only EPC loss of the season, 49-44, a week ago. The Patriots’ 11-game winning streak is tied for its second longest in the last 50 seasons. The school record is 13 straight in 2005-06.
Prediction: Nazareth over Freedom in title game.
All-star ballot: Keenan, Kokolus, Rogers, Brugler, Mad. Amy, J.Davis, Sterner, Wilson, Saylor, Strunk.
Notes
Bangor tied the all-time area record with 12 3-point field goals – in the first half — in a 72-39 win over Moravian Academy. The Slaters made one more in the third quarter to set a new record. Three games before that junior guard Casey Walsh canned a school-record seven 3-pointers in a 65-40 win over Palmerton. Bangor’s 124 3-pointers this season is a school record. … Saucon Valley sophomore Ally Frace finished with 48 3-pointers, one off the school record. … Undefeated Jim Thorpe keeps rolling along. Freshman Leila Hurley set a school record with eight 3-pointers in a career-high 28point game. … Moravian Academy’s postseason hopes took a turn when 6-4 junior Maya
Ettle was lost to a sprained ankle. The Lions lost all four games she missed including a 51-47 loss to 2-19 Saucon Valley. She hopes to be back soon.