Bethlehem Catholic girls basketball team cruised to victories over Easton in their previous two meetings this season.
But with Eastern Pennsylvania Conference gold on the line on Friday night at Freedom High School, the Golden Hawks needed all 32 minutes to fight off the Red Rovers.
Easton had the ball down by three points with 35 seconds left in the fourth quarter. But the Red Rovers would never get a shot off as freshman Taliyah Medina stole a pass and found senior teammate Tessa Zamolyi, who sealed the Golden Hawks victory with a layup to make the score 45-40.
Bethlehem Catholic held off the Red Rovers to win by that score and improve to 23-2 overall. The Golden Hawks’ only two losses came against Cardinal O’Hara and Rock Creek Christian of Maryland.
“Oh my gosh, I was so happy that she got that and I knew right away I had to go down the court and make the two points for safety points. And going through my mind, I was like, ‘I can’t miss it, I can’t miss it.’ But then I made it and all this pressure went off my shoulders,” Zamolyi said.
The steal was also a way for Medina to redeem herself.
“Wonderful play. She bounced back. She missed a rebound there at the end, but she bounced back. We talk about next play, being resilient and it definitely paid off for us tonight,” said Bethlehem Catholic coach Jose Medina, father of Taliyah.
“I know that I made a mistake and I didn’t let it get to me,” Taliyah Medina said. “I told myself, ‘get the next one, get the next one,’ because that’s what we do, we tell ourselves to get the next one. Because the moment we let it get to us is the moment we’re going to keep making more mistakes, more mistakes, more mistakes.”
Easton cut a seven-point deficit early in the fourth quarter down to two points with a quick 5-0 run that featured a 3-pointer by senior Shelby Stocker and a basket by senior Gabby Bloshuk with five minutes left in the fourth quarter. Medina answered with a basket of her own 20 seconds later to make it 39-35 in favor of the top-seeded Golden Hawks.
The second-seeded Red Rovers later cut the deficit to 41-38 on a three-point play by senior Olivia George with 2:55 remaining before Bethlehem Catholic senior Neila Luma hit two free throws to make it 43-38 with 1:07 left.
Easton made one more run, trimming the deficit to 43-40 on two free throws by junior Leanna Deegan with 52 seconds left in the game.
But the Red Rovers’ last chance was thwarted on the Medina steal that turned into the Zamolyi layup.
“They made a good defensive play,” Easton coach Dave Lutz said. “We had a couple chances, but they’re a good team and took advantage of it.”
Luma scored 12 points to lead the Golden Hawks. She had 10 points in the second half. Medina had 11 points with nine coming in the first half. Junior Hope Brown and Zamolyi each added seven for the Golden Hawks.
Bloshuk scored 13 points for Easton, which fell to 21-4 on the season. Three of those losses came against Bethlehem Catholic. Stocker had nine points on three 3-pointers and Deegan finished with eight for the Red Rovers.
The Golden Hawks are once again EPC champions after winning the title in 2014-15 before Easton won the gold last season.
“Playing against Easton, we knew third time coming in, playing them, it was going to be a tough game. I think we definitely deserved it, hands down,” Zamolyi said.
Josh Folck may be reached at jfolck@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshFolck. Find Lehigh Valley high school sports on Facebook.
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