BY JEFF FALK

QUARRYVILLE – When you wear your emotions on your sleeve, you open yourself up to let downs. When your game is based on intensity, you’re bound to experience lapses of focus.

Actually, it’s probably amazing that the Northern Lebanon girls’ basketball team hasn’t endured more performances like this one.

On Saturday night at Solanco High School, the Vikings blinked and the hometown Mules cashed in for a 41-32 victory, in the quarterfinals of the Lancaster-Lebanon League playoffs. Northern Lebanon fell behind early, and never truly recovered.

For Northern Lebanon, the runner-up from Section Four, it was its first defeat of the season to a team other than Lancaster Catholic. It dropped it to 20-3 overall.

Up next for the Vikings is a date with the winner between Bishop McDevitt and Schuylkill Valley, on Friday, February 21st at 7 p.m. at home, in the quarterfinal round of the District Three Class AAAA postseason. Northern Lebanon is the number-two seed, and is guaranteed at least two games in that tournament.

Solanco, the champions of Section Three, moved to 14-9 on the year and into Tuesday’s semifinal round of the L-L League playoffs, opposite Pequea Valley. Back on December 20th in Fredericksburg, Northern Lebanon had defeated Solanco 35-19.

“We just didn’t play, at any stage of the game,” said Northern Lebanon head coach Ken Battistelli. “At no point were we mentally prepared to do what we needed to do. It was a bad, bad, bad performance. That’s the first time that’s happened this year.

“When you’re not doing the right things, you’re working ten times harder,” added Battistelli. “Tonight we didn’t do anything really right.”

Despite their struggles, the Vikings still had their chances in the final quarter.

Down double digits, Northern Lebanon got a couple of free throws and a three-pointer from leader Zara Zerman to close to within 31-26 of the lead, with half of the period remaining. Forty seconds later, Viking Tabitha Hubbard scored on a driving lay-up to make it a 33-28 game.

But Solanco’s Jenna Dombach drilled six straight foul shots over the contest’s final 1:26 to extinguish the Viking rally.

“The girls feel bad, but so do I,” said Battistelli. “There were no roses in the locker room. I feel like we let something that could’ve been special slip away. I think they (his players) can learn from it. Right around the corner, we have a chance to make something else special happen.

“They play as hard as they can,” continued Battiselli. “They always will. We’ll never question the effort. But you could see it from the get-go. And it’s really hard to change it in the middle of a game.”

The Vikings had trailed 28-16 in the middle of the third stanza. But Hubbard drained a three-pointer and teammate Lindsay McFeaters maneuvered inside for a deuce to pull NL to within 30-21.

“We were bad at everything,” said Battistelli. “We were bad on defense. That’s (defense) why our record is as good as it is. We don’t have that much firepower on offense. Our defense keeps it close. I think we can play good offense, but the defense has to be non-negotiable.

As has become the pattern, Zerman led the Vikings with 19 points, which came on a trio of three-pointers, three deuces and four-for-five free throwing. Solanco converted 17 of its 21 foul shots and outscored Northern Lebanon by nine points at the line.

Dombach, who poured in a game-high 22 points, drained 11 of 12 free throws herself.

“They (the Mules) had confidence,” said Battistelli, when asked about the difference from the first time the two sides met. “Northern Lebanon looked different in December too. You hate to see opportunities slip away. I always think we can win. But you want to go down your way, and that wasn’t us tonight.”

The Vikings went scoreless over the first 5:57 of the contest. By the time Zerman ended the drought, Solanco was sitting on a 9-2 cushion.

“They’ll be good,” said Battistelli of his team’s spirit. “We’re here talking about this team of 16- and 17-year-old girls who are as tough as anyone. We’ll look at it and own every piece of it. This is what we need to learn from. These kids are resilient. It just wasn’t right tonight.”

Northern Lebanon opened the second quarter with two free throws from McFeaters and a three-ball from Zerman to pull within 11-7 of the Mules. But Solanco returned the favor, in the form of a 13-4 burst over the next five minutes of action, to extend its lead to 24-11.

“The first time we lost to Lancaster Catholic, in overtime, we had to play East Pennsboro in the middle school gym the next afternoon, and we played fantastic,” said Battistelli. “I didn’t notice anything bad after the losses. It just isn’t a thing.”

To purchase images in this article email jkfalk2005@yahoo.com

2019-20 Northern Lebanon Girls’ Basketball Results

Date	Opponents	Outcomes
12/06 6:45 pm	Ephrata Northern Lebanon at Northern Lebanon Tip-Off Tournament	43 48	Nonleague
12/07 7:00 pm	Palmyra Northern Lebanon at Northern Lebanon Tip-Off Tournament	29 41	Nonleague
12/10 7:30 pm	West Perry at Northern Lebanon	19 35	Nonleague
12/13 7:30 pm	Northern Lebanon at Lampeter-Strasburg	38 26	League
12/16 7:30 pm	Cocalico at Northern Lebanon	31 37	League
12/18 7:30 pm	Northern Lebanon at Garden Spot	48 17	League
12/20 7:30 pm	Solanco at Northern Lebanon	19 35	League
12/27 6:00 pm	New Oxford Northern Lebanon at Lebanon Holiday Tournament	27 45	Nonleague
12/28 7:30 pm	Northern Lebanon McCaskey at Lebanon Holiday Tournament	44 41	Nonleague
1/03 7:30 pm	Lancaster Catholic at Northern Lebanon	50 47	League
1/04 2:30 pm	East Pennsboro Northern Lebanon at Northern Lebanon Middle School	22 44	Nonleague
1/08 6:30 pm	Middletown at Northern Lebanon	15 38	Nonleague
1/10 7:30 pm	Northern Lebanon at Elco	53 45	League
1/14 7:30 pm	Northern Lebanon at Octorara	54 17	League
1/17 7:30 pm	Donegal at Northern Lebanon	39 65	League
1/18 2:30 pm	Northern Lebanon at Tulpehocken		Postponed Nonleague
1/21 7:30 pm	Northern Lebanon at Lancaster Catholic	35 42	League
1/23 7:30 pm	Northern Lebanon at Manheim Central	47 35	League
1/25 4:30 pm	Northern Lebanon at Annville-Cleona	47 12	Nonleague
1/28 7:30 pm	Elco at Northern Lebanon	35 37	League
1/31 7:30 pm	Octorara at Northern Lebanon	30 59	Boxscore League
2/04 7:30 pm	Northern Lebanon at Donegal	60 46	League
2/06 7:30 pm	Northern Lebanon Warwick at Garden Spot	43 32	Playoff
2/08 7:00 pm	Northern Lebanon at Solanco		Playoff
2/21 7:00 pm	TBD at Northern Lebanon		Playoff

PIAA District Three

Class AAAA Power Rankings

AAAA	School	W	L	T	Rating	TWP	OWP	TWPW	OWPW	TWPL	OWPL
1***	Lancaster Catholic	19-	3-	0	0.770319	0.878099	0.638588	21.3	306.7	3.0	173.6
2***	Northern Lebanon	19-	2-	0	0.717449	0.917927	0.472421	21.3	214.6	1.9	239.6
3***	Eastern York	16-	6-	0	0.693089	0.779736	0.587188	17.7	283.7	5.0	199.5
4***	Susquehanna Township	17-	5-	0	0.693070	0.814894	0.544175	19.2	257.2	4.4	215.4
5***	Bermudian Springs	18-	4-	0	0.690098	0.820276	0.530991	17.8	256.2	3.9	226.3
6***	Wyomissing	17-	5-	0	0.641412	0.799539	0.448146	17.4	202.5	4.4	249.3
7***	Bishop McDevitt	10-	9-	0	0.605177	0.588859	0.625120	11.1	261.3	7.8	156.7
8***	Fleetwood	13-	8-	0	0.601035	0.676960	0.508239	14.3	225.2	6.8	217.9
9***	Kennard Dale	12-	10-	0	0.597722	0.604545	0.589382	13.3	284.2	8.7	198.0
10***	Schuylkill Valley	14-	8-	0	0.563872	0.671171	0.432728	14.9	195.6	7.3	256.4
11	Eastern Lebanon County	11-	11-	0	0.554537	0.550228	0.559803	12.1	266.6	9.9	209.6
12	Big Spring	9-	11-	0	0.509030	0.505076	0.513862	10.0	221.5	9.8	209.6
13	Littlestown	11-	11-	0	0.502754	0.497685	0.508949	10.8	244.6	10.9	236.0
14	Boiling Springs	11-	11-	0	0.498550	0.536866	0.451720	11.7	211.5	10.1	256.7
15	James Buchanan	9-	13-	0	0.466487	0.438389	0.500829	9.3	226.5	11.9	225.8
16	West Perry	7-	15-	0	0.393886	0.325000	0.478081	7.2	225.2	14.9	245.9
17	Oley Valley	8-	14-	0	0.386301	0.344186	0.437774	7.4	199.8	14.1	256.6
18	Middletown Area	5-	16-	0	0.382454	0.253071	0.540588	5.2	247.4	15.2	210.3
19	Hamburg Area	6-	16-	0	0.372214	0.295238	0.466295	6.2	217.6	14.8	249.0
20	Octorara Area	2-	17-	0	0.324956	0.123324	0.571394	2.3	235.9	16.4	177.0

Lancaster-Lebanon League

Final Section Four Standings

	League	Overall
	W	L	PCT	W	L	PCT	PF	PA
Lancaster Catholic	13	0	1.000	19	3	0.864	1330	977
Northern Lebanon	11	2	0.846	20	2	0.909	1001	672
Elco	6	7	0.462	11	11	0.500	1013	933
Donegal	4	9	0.308	8	14	0.364	1109	1223
Octorara	1	12	0.077	2	19	0.095	596	1304

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