With the time winding down in the fourth quarter, you could feel the electricity in the air of a home victory for the Lady Hawks of Bethel Park. They toppled the visiting Mt. Lebanon Blue Devils 52-38 on Monday, Jan. 27 in the “Game of the Week.”
The game was tightly contested for the first half with the score 7-5 after the first quarter. It seemed the game would end up being slow paced and a defensive battle, but the tempo seemed to pick up in the second quarter where the game teetered back and forth between the two teams as Bethel Park took a 20-16 lead into halftime.
After halftime, the Blue Devils came out of the gates on a 7-0 run to take the lead 23-20, but their lead would be short lived as Bethel Park would take it back after a bucket by Samantha Simpson and a jumper by Liz Neal put them up 24-23.
Bethel Park would never trail again as they would take a 32-28 lead going into the fourth and outscore Mt. Lebanon 20-10 in the fourth quarter to win.
Bethel Park had three players in double figures with Samantha Simpson and Mia Mattes both having 13 points, and Shannon Conely with 12 points.
Mt. Lebanon’s Madeleine Collins had 10 points being the only player in double figures for the Blue Devils as they fell to 7-1 in section play and ended a four game winning streak, but it was not the scoring that made Bethel Park’s win so impressive.
It was the defense that stamped the win on this game as they limited the Blue Devils to a menial 38 points as the length of Justina Mascaro and Samantha Simpson disrupted the offensive flow for the Blue Devils all night and made nothing easy around the basket.
“Lebo likes driving and playing the middle of the court so we like packing the paint with white shirts (Bethel Park players) and taking away their offense,” head coach of the Bethel Park Lady Hawks Jonna Burke said.
This win gives Bethel Park motivation of beating an undefeated team in section play and beating a section rival that has bested them lately. “This is our biggest rivalry because they have beaten us so many times in the past. A win like this is huge,” Burke added.
With the win, the Lady Hawks improve to 8-1 in their conference and 14-1 overall going into a non-section game at Allderdice on Thurs. Jan. 30. Complete standings can be found here.