Champs stunned
Palmerton rallies to upset Notre DameGP in Colonial semis
Palmerton’s Brianna Moore was happy to defer to teammates early in Wednesday’s game by setting them up for shots as the Blue Bombers played a fantastic first half.
Palmerton’s junior whiz kept doing that right into crunch time before scoring the game-winner herself with 21 seconds remaining as the visiting Blue Bombers beat defending champion and second-seeded Notre Dame 34-32 in an exciting Colonial League tournament semifinal game.
Palmerton (12-4) broke a six-game losing streak to Notre Dame (10-4), which included a 55-54 loss on Feb. 8, for its first victory over the Crusaders since a 57-48 verdict on Jan. 9, 2015. Here’s some takeaways:
How it ended: Notre Dame increased its lead to 32-29 with 3 minutes, 45 seconds left in the game when junior guard Raegan Cooper dropped in a baseline jumper from Sydney DeFranco. That’s when Moore picked up her sixth assist of the game by finding classmate Raegan Nemeth who made her 29th 3-point field goal of the season to tie the score at 32 with 1:45 remaining.
Moore then took a pass at the foul line and drove the lane for the final basket of the game with 21 seconds left to give Palmerton its first lead of the second half. Moore picked up her fourth steal of the second half but missed the front end of a one-and-one with 10 seconds to go.
The Blue Bombers smartly used its final foul before going into the bonus with five seconds left. Notre Dame took the ball out at half court and could only manage a desperation 3-point shot before time expired.
“I’m thrilled,” said third-year Palmerton coach Dan Beck. “The kids played
hard like they’ve been doing all year. We told them we can beat anybody out there and they are buying into it. They played smart Bomber basketball. I love them to death.”
“This game was amazing,” Moore said. “We only lost to them by one before so we knew we had to fix some things and we came out really strong and confident. We wanted this and we got it. We’re pretty proud. We kept our composure and everybody contributed to this win. It’s a great team win.””
How it started: Palmerton bolted out to a 10-4 lead as Kelsey Balliet made a layup and Nemeth canned a five-footer, both from Moore. Freshman Megan Matsko, who was a terror on the backboards all night and finished with nine rebounds, hit a put back and Beth Morgan went coast-to-coast after a defensive rebound and also hit a long two as everybody was getting in on the action.
A pretty baseline drive by freshman reserve Sydney Frantz gave the Blue Bombers a 12-7 lead after a quarter. Palmerton upped its lead to 16-7 before Notre Dame coach Josh Kopp reinserted his star player, junior Antonia Bates, after a four-minute break after she committed her second foul.
Anna Miklos, a junior role player who contributed mightily in keeping the Crusaders close in the first half, and Cooper hit back-to-back 3 pointers for Notre Dame before Miklos made a layup. Bates finished the first half with a three-point play as the Crusaders came back to tie the score at 18-18.
Crusaders take mini-control in third quarter: Bates rebounded her own miss for a basket and senior guard Grace Medei contributed back-to-back baskets as Notre Dame carried its momentum over from the first half to take a 24-19 lead.
Nemeth made a 3-pointer after a kick out pass from Moore to give Palmerton back the lead at 25-24 before Bates, who scored a game-high 15 points with nine rebounds and six blocked shots, hit two straight 3-pointers as Notre Dame regained its five-point lead heading into the final quarter.
Notre Dame’s only points of the fourth quarter came on Cooper’s baseline jumper as they saw a chance to defend its title slip away.
“The turnovers killed us which is uncharacteristic for us,” said Kopp, whose team made a school-record 11 3s in its regular-season win over Palmerton but made its average (five) in this game.
“That’s what’s most disappointing. Palmerton has a lot of good athletes and their man defense had us off balance for most of the night. We didn’t execute when we needed to most, so give Palmerton credit for that.”
“I knew we needed boards, especially offensive rebounds, coming into this game,” Matsko said. “We’ve came back from 17 points this year so we never give up.”
What’s next: Third-seeded Palmerton advances to play top-seeded Northwestern at 5 p.m. on Friday at Moravian Academy for the league championship. The Tigers defeated Bangor 33-31 in the other semifinal on Wednesday. The Tigers won both regular-season matchups with the Blue Bombers 63-36 and 49-42.
“This definitely gives us a boost of confidence going into the title game,” Matsko said. “We knew we had to leave everything out on the court tonight and we’ll have to do that one more time to become champions.”
“We have to do a lot to beat Northwestern,” Beck said. “They have an inside game that we have to defend and [Alexandria] Lister runs the show for them. If we can handle those two we might have a chance.”
Notre Dame will take a highseed into the Class 3A District 11 tournament.
“Obviously this is a defining moment for us,” Kopp said. “Where do we go from here? Will we use this as a learning experience and take care of the ball better and get better looks on offense as we move on? We’ll have to wait and see but I have confidence in these players that we’ll turn things around real quick.”