Nazareth holds off Emmaus again
Earn another shot at mighty Red Rovers
The Nazareth High School girls basketball program was very young and inexperienced coming into the season and not the same dominating outfit that claimed its first of five District 11 titles in 2013 while recording a 22-5 record in district competition.
But the Blue Eagles still have a stranglehold when it plays fellow Eastern Pennsylvania Conference member Emmaus.
It took a mighty effort as fifth-seeded Nazareth used six straight free throws from senior guard Addison Kea in the final 72 seconds to hold off No. 4 Emmaus, 41-34, in a District 11 Class 6A quarterfinal game Friday night at Catasauqua High School.
Nazareth (13-11) advances to play top-seeded Easton (25-1) in the semifinals Tuesday at a time and site to be determined. The Red Rovers beat the Blue Eagles in both regular season matchups this season, 51-43 and 45-36 in overtime.
“The first time we were close but missed a layup at the end and then had to start fouling,” said 17-year Nazareth coach Rich Bickert, who has won 312 games in his career — easily the most in Nazareth basketball history, boys or girls. “And then we lost in overtime. We have some size to match up with Easton. But if their guards are shooting the ball well, they are tough to beat.”
“We just stayed together as a team and made sure we played good defense tonight,” said Kea, a first-year starter and one of two seniors in the Blue Eagles nine-player rotation. “And that just carried over the offensive side for us. I just tried to make sure to stay calm on those foul shots. This was an important game for us .”
Kea led the winners with 12 points and Sam Baker and Renee Wells added 10 each. Paige Inman, the only senior in Emmaus’ nine-player rotation, led her team with eight points, along with Mya Cooper.
“Addison is our leader,” Bickert said. “Another player proving herself is sophomore forward Payton Long. She scored seven points and came up with a few boards tonight and has been playing well.”
This is the first year Nazareth is struggling to win at least 17 games in a season in a decade and just the third time in the last 15 seasons.
The Blue Eagles did, however, find a way to beat the Green Hornets for the third straight season in the quarterfinal round of districts and for the 17th consecutive time overall in the last 10 seasons.
Emmaus (14-11) enjoyed its finest season in 11 years under six-year coach Kelsey Gallagher, a former standout player at both East Stroudsburg High School and Bloomsburg University.
“There were some things we could have controlled a little bit more, like turnovers,” Gallagher said after the Green Hornets committed 27 miscues in the game. “And Nazareth is a very good team. We fought back but came up a little short.”
Emmaus came back from 10 points down late in the third quarter on a Cooper steal and layup, a 3-pointer by freshman reserve Olive Whitney, two free throws from Cooper and Inman’s steal and coast-to-coast layup to get within 32-31 with 3:07 remaining.
Wells drew contact attacking the basket and threw up a rainbow that caught nothing but net and a free throw by Kea made it 35-31 Nazareth before another Cooper steal at midcourt cut the deficit to 35-34 with 1:20 left.
Nazareth jumped out to a 9-4 lead on a Baker drive, a pretty pick and roll with Long scoring from Wells, two free throws from Baker and a straight-away 3-pointer by Kea from Wells.
Emmaus used a free throw, two 3-pointers from Taylor Griffith and an Inman transition layup to tie the score at 9. A Wells 3-pointer and a Kea layup from Long gave Nazareth a 15-11 lead.
Inman’s steal and layup, a corner 3-pointer from freshman reserve Olive Whitney and Inman’s drive while using a ball fake tied the game at 16-16. Wells floater from the left baseline gave the Blue Eagles an 18-16 lead at the end of a sloppy half that saw Emmaus commit 13 first half turnovers and Nazareth nine.
Long scored the first two buckets of the third quarter for Nazareth and DeVita answered with a tough drive before the Blue Eagles went on a 8-0 run to take a 28-18 lead while Emma us was in another scoring drought, this one lasting just over five minutes.
“It’s going to stink to lose someone like Paige Inman, a four-year starter who is the heart and soul of our team,” Gallagher said. “But we have a lot of good things to look forward to. Paige kind of built that foundation and it’s everybody else’s job to pick it up from there and carry on.”