Tigers crush Saucon Vy.
CATASAUQUA - Saucon Valley finished the regular season 8-14 but were given a spot in the District 11 playoffs to be the sixth team for the 4A bracket.
While their odds were long at best, they were diminished further by a couple of injuries, a player on a college pre-admission meeting and a couple more players who were simply unable to make it to the game. That took their roster down to six players to face third seeded Northwestern Lehigh.
You may be able to guess what happened.
Northwestern scored the first six points of the game, led by 12 after one quarter and by 23 at halftime. Before the midway point of the third quarter, the mercy rule kicked in and the Tigers won their 24th straight game downing the Panthers, 62-19.
In limited playing time, senior Paige Sevrain had six rebounds and scored 13 points for Northwestern, tying with teammate Cara Thomas for the team lead in scoring. Thomas had nine points at halftime and picked up the other four in the third quarter shortly before being rested for the rest of the game.
“We found out just before the game that they only had six players, but you have to hand it to their girls that were able to play because they were playing hard and tried to battle. It’s just too much to try to win a playoff game with only six players, but they gave it a shot,” said Northwestern coach Chris Deutsch.
Sophomore Brook Balliet finished with 10 points and dished off the ball to teammates throughout the game. To open the scoring in the second half, Balliet threaded the ball through two defenders to get it to Thomas who went in for an easy layup to make it 33-8.
Not only did Northwestern take care of business from the floor, but it hit on nine of 12 foul shots in the game. Meanwhile, Saucon Valley didn’t attempt a free throw.
Senior Maci Fisher finished the game with 10 points for Northwestern and pointed out that the team has played well throughout the season and came into the postseason ready to win games.
“We have been especially motivated by knowing that each team is coming after us,” said Fisher. “That just keeps us hungry and motivates us to keep working harder.”
With the win, Northwestern is guaranteed at least two more games in districts. They will face North Schuylkill (22-2) in the semifinals with the winner moving on to the finals and having a spot to play in the PIAA tournament. The loser of that game will play in a consolation game with the winner advancing to states, giving District 11 three teams from 4A playing for a state championship. North Schuylkill had a bye in the quarterfinals as the No. 2 seed.
“We have a lot of video on them (North Schuylkill). I think we have 10 games, so we know what they like to do and will have some ways to approach them,” said Deutsch. “They like to press a lot, so we will have to work on that, and they do some other things well that we will need to be aware of, but we’ll be ready and then move on to the next game and hopefully, get to states.”
HEALTHY AT LAST ... Deutsch had all his players available to him for the first time in a while. Hannah Gober returned to active duty after missing the last four games with an ankle injury. Gober saw limited action and hit two foul shots in the fourth quarter.
LONG TIME COMING ... With one more win, Northwestern would be playing in states for the first time since 2006 when they were District 11 champions in the 2A classification. That season, the Tigers were 23-5 going into states and lost to Trinity 65-43 in the second round after beating Carbondale in their opening game.
SAUCON VALLEY
Petersen 4-0-0-4, Gall 1-0-0-2, Santoro 2-0-0-4, Policare 2-0-0-5, Miller 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 9-0-0-19.
NORTHWESTERN
H. Gober 0-2-2-2, Balliet 4-0-0-7, Miller 0-0-0-0, Bissell 0-0-0-0, Freeman 0-1-2-1, McGinley 1-0-0-3, Thomas 5-3-4-13, Fisher 5-0-0-10, G. Gober 1-0-1-2, Conner 1-0-0-2, Sevrain 5-3-3-13, Reinhart 3-0-0-6. TOTALS: 25-9-12-62.
Saucon Vy. 2 6 6 5 - 19
N’western 14 17 18 13 - 62
Three-pointers: SV - Policare 1; NW - Balliet 2, McGinley 1.