BY JEFF FALK

LANCASTER – For the Northern Lebanon girls’ basketball team, a Lancaster-Lebanon Section Four championship is a reward, not a goal.

The Vikings’ goal is to play well, always. A section championship is how they know they’ve played well.

On Tuesday night at Lancaster Catholic High School, Northern Lebanon did not put its best foot forward in a key L-L Section Four contest and fell to the mighty hometown Crusaders 42-35. The Vikings missed out on an early opportunity to grab control of the outcome, then paid for it the rest of the way.

The result all but assured Lancaster Catholic another section title.

With four games remaining on its Section Four slate, the Vikings are now 14-2 overall, 7-2 in the circuit and two games behind the Crusaders in the standings. Lancaster Catholic pushed its record to 13-2 on the year and 9-0 in Section Four.

It was the same Lancaster Catholic outfit which had handed Northern Lebanon its initial setback of the season back on January 3rd, 50-47 in overtime in Fredericksburg.

The Vikings were positioned second in the latest District Three Class AAAA power rankings, where the Crusaders held the top spot.

“I would certainly think so,” said Northern Lebanon head coach Ken Battistelli, to the notion that the outcome all but sewed up the section title for the Crusaders. “It’s never something we talk about. Our goals are really simple and vague.

“We want to be the best at some point,” continued Battistelli. “Ultimately, we want to be the best at the end. We don’t reflect and talk about things. When we talk, we won’t even talk about the section. We just want to win, game after game after game. It’s not any more complicated than that.”

Northern Lebanon, statistically the best defensive team in the Lancaster-Lebanon League by far, did the unthinkable by shutting out Lancaster Catholic for the entire opening quarter – actually the first 9:08 of the contest. But during that stretch, the Vikings managed only two Zara Zerman buckets, a Lindsay McFeaters free throw and a 5-0 lead.

“It was frustrating because we should’ve been up ten or twelve points,” said Battistelli. “We were playing good defense. But you’ve got to take advantage of those opportunities. We don’t think anybody should score against us. We’re supposed to play good defense.

“After that, we had a whole bunch of defensive breakdowns,” added Battistelli. “I think a lot of that starts from our offensive issues.”

Then, over the next 2:40 of the second period, Lancaster Catholic posted 13 points, to establish a 13-5 lead. But Northern Lebanon fought back with an 8-2 spurt, highlighted by four points from Zerman and two apiece by McFeaters and Ashlyn Messinger, to close to within 15-13 of the lead.

“You expect them to go on runs and get hot,” said Battistelli. “They’re so good and have so many different players who can hurt you. We could’ve made runs, but we missed 11 foul shots. If we make seven of those, we’re right there.

“We think we’re good too,” Battistelli continued. “We could go on another streak of not giving up points and Zeke (Zerman) could get hot. At halftime, we were down five. No big deal. But we didn’t get any chemistry or rhythm on offense in the second half.”

Zerman, who battled foul difficulties throughout, registered 18 points for the Vikings.

Northern Lebanon went to the charity stripe 24 times, compared to the Crusaders’ five. But Lancaster Catholic outscored Northern Lebanon 34-16 on two-point field goals.

“There’s not much I can tell you,” said Battistelli. “We didn’t play well at all. It’s unusual. In a game like this, you’ve got to play your best, and we didn’t play our best.

“They’re very good, but we didn’t play well,” Battistelli added. “You could compare it a lot to Elco. Maybe it was emotions. If I had an idea, I’d tell you. I’m sure anxiety or excitement has a lot to do with it. Sometimes it manifests itself in an unhelpful manner.”

Lancaster Catholic extended its lead to 26-17 three minutes into the second half. But Zerman tallied the final five points of the third quarter to make it a 31-27 game.

“It’s important for the kids because they hate Lancaster Catholic,” said Battistelli. “Right now, I don’t feel like jumping off a bridge, or anything like that. It’s important because we don’t like what they stand for.”

The Crusaders reasserted themselves with the first five points of the fourth quarter. Northern Lebanon got within 40-35 of Lancaster Catholic, on lay-ups by Messinger and McFeaters, but it did not score over the final 2:23 of the contest.

“Tonight doesn’t make an impact on anything,” said Battistelli. “It’s Lancaster Catholic, and therefore it is an important game. But there are no further ramifications for the big-picture things. Once the regular season is over, we’ll see where we’re at. Then comes tournament play, and we’ll talk about stuff like that. But we’re not there yet.”

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		League
1/23 7:30 pm	Northern Lebanon at Manheim Central		League
1/25 4:30 pm	Northern Lebanon at Annville-Cleona		Nonleague
1/28 7:30 pm	Elco at Northern Lebanon		League
1/31 7:30 pm	Octorara at Northern Lebanon		League
2/04 7:30 pm	Northern Lebanon at Donegal		League

PIAA District Three

Class AAAA Power Rankings

AAAA	School	W	L	T	Rating	TWP	OWP	TWPW	OWPW	TWPL	OWPL
1	Lancaster Catholic	12-	2-	0	0.757450	0.873418	0.615711	13.8	188.5	2.0	117.7
2	Northern Lebanon	14-	1-	0	0.726205	0.943620	0.460475	15.9	146.5	1.0	171.7
3	Bermudian Springs	13-	2-	0	0.720851	0.866221	0.543177	13.0	182.1	2.0	153.2
4	Eastern York	13-	4-	0	0.718693	0.811966	0.604693	14.3	203.6	3.3	133.1
5	Susquehanna Township	12-	4-	0	0.678742	0.791667	0.540724	13.3	167.3	3.5	142.1
6	Kennard Dale	11-	6-	0	0.646151	0.696275	0.584888	12.2	189.7	5.3	134.6
7	Wyomissing	11-	4-	0	0.621715	0.755932	0.457671	11.2	141.1	3.6	167.2
8	Bishop McDevitt	6-	6-	0	0.585070	0.559322	0.616540	6.6	170.4	5.2	106.0
9	Schuylkill Valley	11-	6-	0	0.573270	0.673469	0.450804	11.6	137.5	5.6	167.5
10	Fleetwood	8-	7-	0	0.566248	0.589831	0.537424	8.7	163.4	6.1	140.6
11	Littlestown	8-	6-	0	0.540756	0.555556	0.522667	7.5	177.6	6.0	162.2
12	Eastern Lebanon County	7-	8-	0	0.529637	0.518644	0.543073	7.7	179.4	7.1	150.9
13	Big Spring	6-	8-	0	0.498393	0.481752	0.518732	6.6	144.0	7.1	133.6
14	Boiling Springs	6-	8-	0	0.469130	0.478571	0.457590	6.7	137.3	7.3	162.8
15	James Buchanan	5-	8-	0	0.454273	0.412245	0.505641	5.1	145.7	7.2	142.4
16	Middletown Area	4-	10-	0	0.412165	0.300752	0.548337	4.0	177.3	9.3	146.0
17	West Perry	4-	11-	0	0.372104	0.265781	0.502054	4.0	158.9	11.1	157.6
18	Hamburg Area	4-	12-	0	0.363784	0.260000	0.490631	3.9	155.8	11.1	161.8
19	Oley Valley	4-	9-	0	0.350503	0.292490	0.421408	3.7	134.1	9.0	184.1
20	Octorara Area	1-	13-	0	0.302025	0.083333	0.569314	1.2	163.5	12.7	123.7

Lancaster-Lebanon League

Section Four Standings

	League	Overall
	W	L	PCT	W	L	PCT	PF	PA
Lancaster Catholic	9	0	1.000	13	2	0.867	893	671
Northern Lebanon	7	2	0.778	14	2	0.875	708	482
Elco	5	4	0.556	8	8	0.500	741	680
Donegal	3	6	0.333	6	10	0.375	761	872
Octorara	1	9	0.100	1	15	0.063	415	995

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

•