Finishing kick
Northwestern Lehigh locks down Palmerton, title with strong second half
If ever a game epitomized the sport that is basketball and its momentum swings, it was Friday’s Colonial League girls basketball championship game at Moravian Academy.
Top-seeded Northwestern Lehigh won the battle early and late and that was enough to produce a 49-35 victory over third-seeded Palmerton. Guards Sydney Nyce and Ali Lister each scored 13 points and forward Paige Sevrain added 11 to pace the champions.
The victory gave the Tigers (16-1) their fourth Colonial League title and fifth overall in the school’s history as they won their 13th straight game over the Blue Bombers since Palmerton swept the season series in 201415.
“This means a lot to the seniors and everybody,” Lister said. “We’re coming off a couple titles in the fall season too so its title town at Northwestern and its awesome.”
It also gave 18-year Northwestern coach Chris Deutsch his 300th career victory — to go along with 151 defeats — to become the ninth girls coach in the area to reach that total since the modern era (1970) and the fifth quickest to ever do it. Deutsch’s fourth Colonial League title also ties him with two other coaches for the most ever in league history.
“All those numbers are team accomplishments,” said Deutsch, who took over a program that struggled mightily for 18 of the previous 22 seasons before he took over. “You have to have good players and we certainly have. You have to have good assistants.
“We’ve had a pretty good program the last 18 years. I think we’re well respected in the area and I’m really proud of our girls.”
Nyce, a 5-foot-6 sophomore, helped the Tigers to their big start with a career-high 11 points in the first half as Northwestern built a 12-4 lead to take early
command. Palmerton came back behind Brianna Moore, who scored a game-high 18 points, Beth Morgan and reserve Sydney Frantz to tie the score at 12-12 after a quarter.
The Blue Bombers (12-5) then pulled away from a 17-17 tie to lead 31-24 at the half before Moore extended that to 33-24 on the first shot of the second half. Palmerton would take 11 more shots in the quarter and not make one.
Kaitlyn Jones, a 5-5 senior guard, started the Tigers’ comeback with the first of her two 3-pointers in the third quarter as she scored eight of the Tigers’ first 10 points after the half.
Sevrain, a 5-11 sophomore and the Tigers’ leading scorer who was held to two points and two shots in the first half, then took over the game.
First she made a nice cut to the basket where she scored off a Sara Ledeboer pass and then with a foul-line jumper. After a Sevrain defensive rebound she assisted on Caitlyn Miller’s
10-foot jumper. A steal followed with Lister turning that into a layup and a 38-33 lead after three quarters.
It was Groundhog Day, the movie, as Palmerton again struck first in the final quarter when Moore, back after suffering what appeared to be a serious leg injury with 1:53 left in the third, scored on a drive to open the period. And again, the Blue Bombers failed to score for the rest of the quarter.
Lister made a layup off a Ledeboer steal, Sevrain hit a short jumper in the lane and Ledeboer made two free throws with 2:50 left and Northwestern was on its way to a championship.
“I’m really proud of how we worked as a team” Nyce said. “Everybody showed what they have. I was very worried at halftime. Brianna Moore is an amazing player. We knew we had our work cut out for us.”
Lister and Sevrain each grabbed six rebounds and Jones finished with five while Lister came up with three steals for the Tigers.
Moore added nine rebound and seven steals for Palmerton. Frantz was integral in the Bombers’
19-12 second quarter with six points and four rebounds.
“Palmerton certainly belonged to be here,” Deutsch said. “They’ve been playing great ball at the end of the season. We knew this would be a battle. They had us on the ropes at halftime. But we held them to four points in the second half. I thought we were outstanding on defense in the second half.”
“They just wore us down at the end,” Palmerton coach Dan Beck said. “We missed some layups or it would have been a different game. And we turned the ball over a little bit and lost our composure a little at the end. Northwestern really doesn’t have a weakness. But I think we opened up some eyes this year, too.
Colonial League All-Star Team
The Colonial League coaches association all-star team was announced earlier Friday with Palisades senior Trinity Williams being honored as its Most Valuable Player. Joining Williams on the first team is Antonia Bates
of Notre Dame, Northwestern Lehigh teammates Alexandra Lister and Paige Sevrain, Wilson’s Brielle Reidinger and Brianna Moore of Palmerton.
Williams and Bates are repeat first-teamers while Lister and Moore were named second team all-stars last season.
The second team consists of Raegan Cooper of Notre Dame, Wilson’s Makayla Days, Madison Kluska of Bangor, Beth Morgan of Palmerton, Northern Lehigh’s Aubrey Pollard and Quinn Wittman of Salisbury.
Morgan is a repeat secondteam selection from last season while Pollard is the only freshman of the 22 players honored this season.
Honorable mention selections include Caroline Bennett, Lauren Conron and Kaya Mobley (Southern Lehigh), Sydney DeFranco and Grace Medei (Notre Dame), Brynn Holland (Bangor), Raegan Nemeth (Palmerton) Emma Niebell and Madsion Seier (Northern Lehigh) and Lexi Rushatz (Catasauqua).