Easton, Liberty advance to finals
Anye’ Staton scored 15 points, Evalyse Cole had 14 and Kourin Carew contributed 11 to lead top-seeded Easton past No. 5 Nazareth 52-32 in a District 11 Class 6A girls basketball semifinal on Tuesday night at Allen High School’s Sewards Gymnasium.
Junior Emma Pukszyn scored 15 points and freshman guard Ava Kopetskie added 12 to lead No. 7 seed Liberty past No. 6 Northampton 50-36 in the other semifinal game.
Easton (26-1) will have a chance to tie its school record of 27 wins in a season, set last season, in Friday’s championship game against Liberty at a time and site to be determined and also win its third district championship in school history. The Red Rovers are (53-4) over the last two seasons but are looking for their first title in that time.
“We’re looking forward to the championship game,” Carew said. “We’re practicing harder than ever. We’ll have to get out on Liberty’s shooters and we have to keep moving the ball on offense like we’ve been doing.”
Sixth-seeded Northampton will play No. 5 Nazareth (13-12) in the consolation game with the winner receiving the third and final berth into the PIAA tournament.
Easton clinched its 11th trip to the state tournament with the semifinal victory while the Hurricanes have qualified for their ninth PIAA berth and first since going four straight seasons ending in 2012.
“We’ll have to keep our composure against Liberty,” said Staton, the only senior on Easton’s roster. “We have to contain their shooters too. We really played good tonight. We knew the two previous games against Nazareth were tough and we were ready for them tonight.”
Easton shut out Nazareth in the first quarter in taking an 11-0 lead after eight minutes. Staton scored on a rebound basket, Cole made a layup off a high-low pass from Staton and Megan Elias canned a 3-pointer.
Cole made two of four free throws while Carew made two free throws to complete the first quarter scoring with Nazareth going 0-for-nine from the field.
The Red Rovers made it 14-0 on a Carew putback before Renee Wells broke the ice for the Blue Eagles with a 3-pointer two minutes into the second stanza. A Cole 3-pointer and an Olivia Keckler putback gave the Rovers a 19-3 advantage.
A three-point play plus another field goal by Staton and a Carew bucket gave the Rovers a 26-7 halftime lead.
Easton played Liberty twice in the regular season, winning 59-24 and 67-55.
“They were beating us the last game of the regular season,” Easton coach Dave Lutz Jr. said of the Hurricanes. “It took a great effort for us to eventually pull away. We’re going to have to match their intensity. They play really hard on defense. They play hard all over so we’re going to have to match that.”
Nazareth, which has won all five of its District 11 titles in the last 11 seasons, rebounded from a 4-6 start to the season and reached the final four in Class 6A for the ninth consecutive season. It will try to reach the PIAA playoffs for the ninth straight season in the consolation game.
“That’s what we’ve been preaching since Christmas,” Nazareth coach Rich Bickert. “Keep the streak going making it to the state playoffs. The kids took that to heart and we played much better over the second half of the season. Easton just took it to us tonight, They’re very good.”
Junior guard Ruby Miller added eight points and seven rebounds for the well-rounded ’Canes and Kopetskie also contributed six rebounds and four steals in its win over Northampton.
Liberty will try to become the second straight seventh-seed to win the title after Parkland turned the trick last season. Bangor, when it beat the Hurricanes in 2012, are the only other No. 7 seed to ever win a district title in the highest class.
Liberty will be playing in its fifth district championship game. It won the school’s second title in 2009.
This will be just the Hurricanes’ second winning season in the last 10 seasons and that includes a winless season in 2017-18.
“I’m proud for the team. It’s all about them, “second-year Hurricanes coach Jarrett Carnes said. “They’ve put the work in day in and day out and battled through the ups and downs. The adversity. District chip now. District chip.”
Miller hit a 3-pointer and two free throws and senior guard Layla Orth, the only senior in the Hurricanes’ usual rotation, made a free throw as Liberty began to take control of the game in the third quarter.
Kopetskie made a putback, Abby Thompson drove for a score and her twin sister, Jordan, made a layup in transition with two seconds left to give the Hurricanes a 35-24 lead after three as Northampton went almost four minutes between baskets in the quarter.
The Konkrete Kids never got the deficit under double figures in the fourth quarter.
“Both games in the districts have been team efforts,” Carnes said. “Pocono Mountain West had Vataijah Davis and Northampton has Grace Lesko, both 6-footers.
“And Pukszyn held both down about as well as could be expected. She did an outstanding job on defense.”
Davis and Lesko took turns with each being named the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference MVP the past two seasons. Liberty upset second-seeded Pocono Mountain West in the quarterfinals.
“Our nerves started to calm down after halftime,” said Pukszyn, an undersized 5-foot-8 forward. “We knew we were just as good, we just had to show it on the court. We’ve believed in ourselves all season. We had our ups and downs like every team this season but we’ve persevered through the tough times and here we are.”
In a first half that saw two ties and nine lead changes, Liberty scored the final seven points on two free throws from Layla Orth, a 3-pointer Pukszyn and a long jumper from the right corner by reserve Abby Thompson to give the Hurricanes a 23-18 lead going into intermission.
Pukszyn scored nine first half points on 3-for-4 shooting and Kopetskie had seven for the ’Canes while Lesko had eight and Nicole Yellen had five points for the K-Kids in the first 16 minutes. Lesko finished with 18 points and now has 1,387 in her career.
Northampton (13-11) beat defending champ Parkland in the quarterfinals in a shootout, 79-65, behind Lesko’s careerhigh 34 points.
Liberty is enjoying its best season since going 18-7 in 201516 and reached its first district semifinal appearance since reaching the final in 2012.