BY JEFF FALK

LAMPETER – For the Northern Lebanon girls’ basketball, what happens from here on out is just icing on the cake. But that doesn’t mean the Vikings don’t want to have their cake and eat it too.

On Saturday afternoon at Lampeter-Strasburg High School, Northern Lebanon’s bid for its just desserts fell short, in a 47-38 setback to the hometown Pioneers, during the opening round of the Lancaster-Lebanon League playoffs. The Vikings fell behind 12-0 at the start and although they made a number of spirited runs at Lampeter-Strasburg, they never fully caught up.

For the Vikings, the success of the 2017-18 season has already been secured. With the result, Northern Lebanon, the runner-up from Section Three, slipped to 18-5 on the season.

As the presumed fifth seed, the Vikings will open play in the District Three Class AAAA tournament on Friday, Feb, 23, likely at Bishop McDevitt, at a time to be announced. Northern Lebanon is the reigning District Three Class AAA champ.

Lampeter-Strasburg, the champion of Section Two, moved to 21-2 on the winter and into Tuesday’s semifinal round of the L-L league playoffs.

“I don’t think anything could make this thing unsuccessful,” said Northern Lebanon head coach Ken Battistelli. “We want to put our best team in the playoffs. It’s not like we’re going to face a team that we’re better than. We have to play well and they have to play well. Every game we would win would be a cherry. But nothing could make us feel negative about this season. A couple more celebrations would be nice.

“We haven’t lost to a public school our size since the state quarterfinals three years ago,” continued Battistelli. “I hate that we didn’t play well tonight. I think our team has done a great job this season. We’re doing good, we just didn’t do good today.”

After trailing by seven points at the break, Northern Lebanon just couldn’t get over the hump in the second half.

The Vikings got to within 30-24 of the Pioneers on a Zara Zerman three-pointer, two minutes into the third quarter. And a Zerman charity toss with two minutes left in the stanza pulled Northern Lebanon to within 33-27.

“I thought if we would’ve followed the game play, we would’ve been in great, great shape,” said Battistelli. “I wanted us to do what we were prepared to do. It’s like we couldn’t get squared away.

“Nerves causes a whole lot of stuff to occur,” Battistelli continued. “Things affect everybody differently. The second time we played Lebanon Catholic, this was the same game. That’s rough.”

With Lampeter-Strasburg playing good defense and being deliberate on offense, the Vikings went without a point for the first 4:39 of the final quarter.

A three-point play from senior Liz Voight ended the drought and got the Vikings to within 40-30. Another three-point play, this one from Zerman, with 1:51 to go, made it 44-35.

“I don’t know,” said Battistelli. “I’m kind of like a weirdo, but the game against Elco (regular-season finale) felt like the most important game in the world. I don’t know how the kids think about it. For me, they’re all kind of the same.

“We are what we are,” added Battistelli. “We’re proud of who we are. You just want your team to look like your team. You know they don’t go on forever. We try to take every game really, really seriously.”

Zerman led the Vikings with 18 points, and Voight tallied ten. Lampeter-Strasburg outscored Northern Lebanon 16-9 at the foul line and 18-9 from beyond the arc.

“When you play defense, teams don’t shoot the ball well,” said Battistelli. “When you don’t play defense, teams shoot the ball well. We went through a period when we started to play the right defense, they didn’t score and we cut it (the deficit) to four.”

Northern Lebanon went without a point for the game’s opening 5:29, while the Pioneers were opening their 12-0 lead. But courtesy of a Cassiah Ray three-pointer, the Vikings closed to 15-8 by the end of the first quarter.

“A gut-punch? I don’t know,” said Battistelli. “At no point in the game did we resemble us. It’s easy to tell when a team is not locked into a game plan.

“It was disappointing that we weren’t trying to score on offense and we weren’t following the game plan on defense,” continued Battistelli. “I was worried at that point. It wasn’t happening, by any stretch of the imagination.”

Late in the second quarter, the Vikings got two free throws from Zerman and an inside move from her, to pull to within 23-19 of the lead. But the Pioneers ended the first half with Emma Gochnauer’s buzzer-beating three-pointer from a couple of steps inside half-court, to take a seven-point cushion to the locker room.

“I didn’t say very much to them,” said Battistelli of the post-game address to his team. “There’s no reason to talk about that stuff now. We have a wait until districts start. What I’m anxious for is the next two weeks, to see if we’re ready to do what we need to do. We have some things to clean up.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To purchase images in this article email jkfalk2005@yahoo.com, or to view more go to https://lebanonsportsbuzz.com/photo-gallery/.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 2017-18 Northern Lebanon Girls’ Basketball Outcomes

Date	Opponents	Results
12/08 6:45 pm	Kennard-Dale Northern Lebanon at Northern Lebanon Tournament	19 39
12/09 6:45 pm	Palmyra Northern Lebanon at Northern Lebanon Tournament	38 35
12/12 7:30 pm	Middletown at Northern Lebanon	42 56
12/15 7:30 pm	Northern Lebanon at Annville-Cleona	44 19
12/18 6:30 pm	Northern Lebanon at Lebanon Catholic	57 52
12/20 7:30 pm	Northern Lebanon at Columbia	51 39
12/22 7:00 pm	Pequea Valley at Northern Lebanon	53 65
12/27 7:30 pm	Northern Lebanon Lebanon at Lebanon Tournament	51 15
12/28 7:30 pm	Northern Lebanon New Oxford at Lebanon Tournament	49 38
1/03 7:30 pm	Garden Spot at Northern Lebanon	39 59
1/09 7:30 pm	Northern Lebanon at Lancaster Mennonite	58 48
1/10 7:30 pm	Lancaster Catholic at Northern Lebanon	51 25
1/12 7:30 pm	Northern Lebanon at Elco	58 54
1/19 8:00 pm	Northern Lebanon at Lebanon Catholic	35 43
1/20 1:00 pm	Northern Lebanon at Tulpehocken	39 31
1/22 7:30 pm	Annville-Cleona at Northern Lebanon	22 37
1/23 7:30 pm	Columbia at Northern Lebanon	39 56
1/25 7:30 pm	Northern Lebanon at Manheim Central	38 26
1/26 7:00 pm	Northern Lebanon at Pequea Valley	45 42
1/30 7:30 pm	Northern Lebanon at Lancaster Catholic	41 57
2/02 7:30 pm	Lancaster Mennonite at Northern Lebanon	36 56
2/06 7:30 pm	Elco at Northern Lebanon	27 41
2/10 2:30 pm	Northern Lebanon at Lampeter-Strasburg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PIAA District Three

 Class AAAA Power Rankings

AAAA	School	W	L	T	Rating	TWP	OWP	TWPW	OWPW	TWPL	OWPL
1	Lancaster Catholic	20-	0-	0	0.804330	1.000000	0.565178	20.1	249.3	0.0	191.8
2	Berks Catholic	16-	4-	0	0.698397	0.830189	0.537319	17.6	222.5	3.6	191.6
3	Wyomissing	19-	3-	0	0.684596	0.880282	0.445424	18.8	202.0	2.6	251.5
4	Bishop McDevitt	14-	7-	0	0.684419	0.721604	0.638971	16.2	290.7	6.3	164.3
5	Northern Lebanon	18-	4-	0	0.668808	0.818182	0.486240	18.0	229.7	4.0	242.7
6	Kennard Dale	13-	9-	0	0.614336	0.646396	0.575151	14.4	277.1	7.9	204.7
7	York Suburban	13-	9-	0	0.610664	0.649554	0.563133	14.6	272.5	7.9	211.4
8	Susquehanna Township	12-	10-	0	0.604263	0.603604	0.605068	13.4	290.1	8.8	189.4
9	West Perry	15-	7-	0	0.597943	0.674888	0.503899	15.1	232.6	7.3	229.0
10	Eastern York	11-	11-	0	0.581621	0.556306	0.612561	12.4	297.0	9.9	187.9
11	Eastern Lebanon County	11-	11-	0	0.522123	0.500000	0.549161	11.3	258.6	11.3	212.3
12	Schuylkill Valley	11-	11-	0	0.495770	0.525000	0.460046	11.6	212.2	10.5	249.0
13	Bermudian Springs	9-	13-	0	0.462689	0.407834	0.529733	8.9	247.2	12.9	219.5
14	Littlestown	9-	13-	0	0.437791	0.417051	0.463141	9.1	212.4	12.7	246.2
15	Lancaster Mennonite	7-	15-	0	0.419968	0.305046	0.560429	6.7	261.3	15.2	205.0
16	James Buchanan	6-	16-	0	0.385046	0.312500	0.473713	6.5	218.5	14.3	242.8
17	Boiling Springs	5-	16-	0	0.377711	0.279236	0.498070	5.9	225.8	15.1	227.6
18	East Pennsboro	2-	19-	0	0.315083	0.107579	0.568699	2.2	250.0	18.3	189.6
19	Hamburg	1-	20-	0	0.247442	0.047382	0.491959	1.0	224.9	19.1	232.2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lancaster-Lebanon League

 Section Three Standings

	League			Overall
	W	L	PCT	W	L	PCT	PF	PA
Lancaster Catholic	14	0	100.00	22	0	100.00	1374	770
Lebanon Catholic	11	3	78.57	18	5	78.26	1440	1001
Northern Lebanon	11	3	78.57	18	5	78.26	1073	877
Pequea Valley	7	7	50.00	12	10	54.55	1320	1161
Elco	6	8	42.86	11	11	50.00	1023	984
Lancaster Mennonite	3	11	21.43	7	15	31.82	996	1240
Columbia	3	11	21.43	7	15	31.82	924	1189
Annville-Cleona	1	13	7.14	4	18	18.18	639	972