Challenges have a way of popping up for the Easton Area High School girls basketball team.
And the Red Rovers typically have an answer.
That’s especially true of Shelby Stocker’s situation this season.
The senior, who gradually worked her way back from an offseason knee injury, displayed dazzling postseason form against Nazareth on Wednesday night.
Stocker had a season-high 19 points as the second-seeded Red Rovers dispatched third-seeded Nazareth 49-31 in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference semifinals at Freedom High School.
Easton, the defending league champion, advances to meet top seed Bethlehem Catholic in the EPC final 6 p.m. Friday back at Freedom.
The Red Rovers were without starter and Boston University recruit Mackenzie Miers, who missed the semifinal due to illness.
“We’ve faced adversity for three years and every time we’ve responded,” Easton coach Dave Lutz said. “It was a total team effort, not only offensively but defensively.”
“We really played well,” Stocker said. “We played like a team. We had some really good passes, rebounds and we shut down their two best players (Tessa Brugler and Jessica Durnin combined for 16 points). That really helped us a lot.”
After going into the half tied at 19, the Red Rovers took their first lead of the night with a bucket from Kyla Smith to start the third quarter. Easton didn’t trail for the rest of the night.
The defending champs outscored the Blue Eagles 15-4 in the period and took a 34-23 lead into the fourth quarter after a layup and buzzer-beating 3-pointer from Taylor Smith.
Brugler scored the opening four points of the final period for Nazareth, but Stocker responded with back-to-back 3s to keep the game in the Red Rovers’ control.
“Shelby really works on her shooting and her shooting has improved steadily,” Lutz said. “She’s one of those shooters that, when she gets on a roll, she can really light it up.”
Stocker indicated that her nine-point first quarter helped her find a groove.
“That gave me a lot of confidence,” she said. “I wasn’t really scared to shoot after I made my first few shots.”
Without the 6-foot-3 Miers, Easton’s Leanna Deegan had an increased workload in the post. She responded with eight points, and an impressive performance defensively and on the boards.
“Leanna is one of our better players,” Lutz said. “She’s very unselfish. She doesn’t mind coming off the bench and she always gives us a big lift. Today, we needed her to start and she just played awesome.”
“We knew we needed to keep rebounding because Mackenzie is a big contributor to our rebounds,” Deegan said. “We watched a lot of film yesterday about how to defend the post — that really helped me … As a team, we just knew we needed to fill a gap. I think we did a good job doing it.”
The senior-laden Rovers have a real sense of urgency, according to Stocker, and that came through in a dominating second half during a chippy rivalry contest.
“All the personal issues, the team issues were put aside for this game because it’s really now or never for us,” Stocker said. “This is our last chance, we really couldn’t think about anything else besides our game. That’s what got us through.”
Now, Easton gets an opportunity to protect its EPC title in its third meeting with Bethlehem Catholic this winter. The Golden Hawks won their two regular-season games.
“We’re really excited about it, I know that,” Deegan said. “We know whoever wins (the semifinal) is going to be a big challenge — and we’re ready for it.”
“It definitely means a lot to us,” Stocker said. “Now, we just need to persevere, and come out with a lot of heart and motivation to get this ‘W.’”
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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