No one is going to make it easy on the Bethlehem Catholic girls basketball team, and the Golden Hawks know that.
The top-seeded team got another reminder on Wednesday night.
Bethlehem Catholic pulled out a 47-39 victory over fourth-seeded Parkland in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference semifinals at Freedom High School.
The Golden Hawks, the No. 1-ranked team by lehighvalleylive, advance to meet second-seeded Easton in the EPC final 6 p.m. Friday back in Bethlehem Township.
Second-half deficits weren’t a common feature of Bethlehem Catholic’s unbeaten run through the EPC schedule. The Golden Hawks found themselves down, however, when Parkland senior Rachel Medlar drained a 3-pointer to put the Trojans up 31-30 with 1:50 remaining in the third quarter.
Golden Hawks senior Neila Luma grabbed an offensive rebound and scored to give her team a 32-31 lead headed in the fourth.
Bethlehem Catholic (22-2) used a 9-0 run, scoring seven of those points from the free throw line, in the final quarter, to secure the victory.
Parkland (17-6), meanwhile, was undone by a slew of fourth-quarter turnovers and a handful of missed layups in the second half.
“There are a lot of things that we need to do,” Golden Hawks coach Jose Medina said. “We’ll look at the film and the adjustments that we need to make. This time of year it’s all about — you hear the term — survive and advance. Today, we survived. We’ll move forward. There’s definitely a lot of things we have to clean up.”
In their two meetings, the Trojans are the only EPC opponent that Bethlehem Catholic hasn’t beaten by double digits. Luma knew that Wednesday’s semifinal was going to be a significant challenge.
“We expected it all,” said the George Washington University recruit, who finished with 13 points. “We never came into the game expecting to blow them out. We never take a team lightly.”
Maintaining composure was key down the stretch, according to Luma.
“They were trying to speed us up in the second half as they were coming back,” she said. “I was just trying to keep our team under control, staying calm and running our sets.”
The target on Becahi’s back has only grown, considering the success they’ve experienced to this point.
“We understand that we need to bring it each and every game, and bring it each and every practice as well,” Medina said. “For us, just take it one game at a time and good things will happen.”
Hawks junior Natalie Rhine finished with 10 points. Parkland senior Emily Piston had a team-high 12 points and junior Julia Buchman added nine.
Friday’s championship game will mark Becahi’s third meeting with Steel Division foe Easton. The Red Rovers are the defending EPC champions, but fell to the Hawks 65-47 and 56-37 this winter.
“Tomorrow we’re going to get back in the gym and we’re going to be shooting a lot of shots, making sure we can hit them on Friday,” Luma said.
Medina expects to meet a highly motivated bunch in the final.
“I told our girls to put ourselves on the other side. What if it was us that lost to a team twice and we had a chance to make amends in a championship?” he said. “The last two games mean nothing. A goal of ours coming into the season was to be a champion and here it is. We’re here. We just want to focus on that.”
Kyle Craig may be reached at kcraig@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KyleCraigSports. Find Lehigh Valley high school sports on Facebook.
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