Wassel, Crim lead LC to PCL quarters

LANSDALE » Brady Wassel was not ready to be done Tuesday night.

“It was always in the back of my mind, I said I don’t want to end it here,” the Lansdale Catholic girls basketball senior said. “As much as I love playing on my home court, we want to keep going and we want to go as far as we can.”

In a tight battle with Bishop McDevitt in the first round of the Philadelphia Catholic League tournament, Wassel was a big reason the Crusaders’ season continues. The Holy Family commit scored 10 of her 18 points in the fourth quarter as seventh-seeded LC found away to get ahead of the No. 10 Lancers in the final period and stay there, pulling away for a 51-40 victory.

“We played them on our Senior Night and obviously emotions are running high that night but we knew coming into this game it was going to be the same battle, it was going to be a dogfight,” Wassel said. “They’re really tough players and they really play up on you and those are one of the teams you can’t underestimate. Each team in the PCL, every game is a battle so you can’t any team lightly.

“But I thought at first we started out a little tentative but once we stated to play our game and we didn’t let them dictate, I thought we handled it really well.”

Elan Wali collected the first four points of the fourth to give McDevitt at 36-34 lead but Wassel drained a 3-pointer to put Crusaders (16-7) up for good as LC proceeded to put together a 12-2 run — nine points coming from Wassel, including the last four for a 46-38 advantage with 1:53 remaining.

“She struggled a little bit in the first half. And her confidence stayed high,” said Crusaders coach Joe Mack of Wassel. “We kept encouraging her to shoot the ball and she really answered and did a great job tonight. And like I said in the locker room, she kind of put us on her back in the fourth quarter and carried us to the finish.”