Nazareth pulls away for its 2nd straight title
It’s not easy climbing to the top. And it’s even harder staying there.
But this senior class of Nazareth Area High School girls basketball players knows the drill and is proud to carry on what has become a tradition for the program.
Senior forward Talya Brugler scored 16 points and junior guard Kelly Leszcynski added 14, and the pair combined for Nazareth’s first 20 points of the second half to lead the top-seeded Blue Eagles to a 39-29 victory over No. 2 seed Parkland in the Class 6A District 11 championship game Thursday night at PPL Center in Allentown.
It’s was the seventh titlegame appearance in the last nine years for Nazareth in the district’s highest classification and its fifth championship. The Blue Eagles reached their first district final in 2002 under Bill Bisci and won their first championship in 2013.
“I told the players everybody was going to give us their best shot this season,” Nazareth coach Rich Bickert said. “Let’s see if we can stay
at the top. It’s not easy up there, especially through this crazy year. Win or lose, when they play as hard as they did tonight you cannot complain.”
Nazareth (16-1), which only lost to Northampton this season, 53-41 on Feb. 13, has won back-toback titles twice now (2015-16) while improving to 31-24 all time in 28 district appearances and 5-5 in title games.
“We knew if we lost this would be our last game,” said Brugler, Nazareth all-time girls scorer with 1,583 points.
“We have a lot of goals this season and this is one of them. We all played with heart tonight and gave it everything we had.”
Parkland (15-3) fell to 34-32 all time in districts and 3-3 in championship games, with its last title coming in 2014.
Seniors Sonya Shivok scored 12 points and Lindsay Berger added eight points and 13 rebounds for the Trojans. Berger, who will play at Holy Cross nest season, finished her scholastic career with 953 points.
Big start for Nazareth
The Blue Eagles jumped ahead 11-3 as Brugler, a Saint Joseph’s recruit, scored on a drive and baseline pullup jumper before assisting Leszcynski’s 3-pointer with a kick-out pass. Leszcynski has 31 3-pointers this season and 112 in her career after she made 74 last season to set a school record.
“We came together as a team when we had to today,” Leszcynski said. “We just wanted to remember the feeling we had last year when we won it . ... I think we played their game too much in the first half. The second half we started to run more.”
Parkland quickly came back, however, and made it 11-8 after a quarter on a Mo Olewine turnaround
jumper and Shivok’s 3-pointer from the top of the key.
Nazareth went just 1-for-7 in the second quarter and scored four points, but Parkland couldn’t take advantage. Berger’s first basket of the game came with 1:30 left in the half to make it 15-14 Nazareth at intermission.
Blue Eagles take control
Leszcynski hit a 3-pointer to give Nazareth the lead for good at 21-18 midway through the third quarter. Brugler stole a pass and followed with a layup and finished off another layup with her off hand, her left, for a 27-20 advantage, then followed that with another layup off a Sophia Zelasko steal.
“Kelly really brought her game today,” Brugler said. “I told her before the game you know they’ll pressure us. We have to be aggressive and strong and take it to them.”
Senior McKenna Fortner played her second straight strong postseason game and made a pair of 17-footers early while leading the Blue Eagles with five rebounds.
“McKenna had some big shots early on, so everybody picks up everybody when we need it,” Bickert said. “Thankfully we had enough points on the board to win the game. Defense is our bread and butter and it was spread out tonight.”
“We’ve been working on this for forever,” Fortner said. “It’s always been a dream to get more than one district championship. Being a senior and going out on a high note is awesome. It makes me really happy.
“Parkland has really long wingspans. We’ve been playing great as a team the last couple games and everything is falling into our laps.”