BY JEFF FALK
FREDERICKSBURG – The Northern Lebanon girls’ basketball’s dogged determination, tenacity and sheer will to win is well-documented. The Vikings’ relentlessness serves them well in playoff games, close contests and title tilts.
But do you know when it really plays out the best? Coming from behind.
On Friday night, during the quarterfinals of the District Three Class AAAA postseason, Northern Lebanon employed its trademark persistence to rally from its biggest deficit of the season and overcome Berks Catholic 41-38. After trailing at home by as many as 11 points late in the third quarter, the Vikings outscored their guests 25-11 over the final ten minutes of play.
The Vikings needed every ounce of energy and every single point.
Northern Lebanon turned things around with increased defensive pressure full court, by getting to the free throw line and by finally establishing some sort of rhythm offensively. The Vikings also overcame foul trouble experienced by stars Zoe Zerman and Megan Brandt and 28 points by the Saints’ 6-2 giant, Dejah Terrell.
While there was a lot on the line for Northern Lebanon, the most important thing seemed to be simply winning.
With the triumph, top-seeded Northern Lebanon moved to 23-2 and into Tuesday’s Class AAAA semifinal opposite familiar foe and fourth-seeded Lancaster Catholic, which dispatched Eastern York. Tuesday at 8 p.m. at Warwick High School will mark the third meeting of the season between the Vikings and Crusaders, with Northern Lebanon having taken the previous two – 49-35 in Lancaster on January 6th and 50-41 in Fredericksburg on January 31st.
Berks Catholic, the number-eight seed in the tournament, dropped to 15-12.
“Every time we’re near losing, it feels like the season is over,” said Northern Lebanon head coach Ken Battistelli. “When we lost to Lebanon Catholic, it felt like I couldn’t go on. When we lost to Cedar Crest, it felt like the world was going to end. If we would’ve lost tonight, it would’ve been like an earthquake happened. For them (his players), losing is bad.
“The kids want to go to Giant Center really bad,” continued Battistelli. “To them, that would be amazing. I want to get to Giant Center, but only if we’re going to win. I never, ever want to lose. We try to live on the edge like it’s life and death. It might cause stress, but it also creates energy.”
“It was stressful. Very stressful,” said Brandt. “But at no point did I think we couldn’t win. It was a little scary. Terrifying. It’s not like we’re afraid to lose. But it was our last home game, I’m a senior and it was emotional. I tried to keep it together.”
Things looked bleak for the Vikings, down 27-16 and Zoe Zerman on the bench with four fouls. But Zoe Zerman returned late in the third quarter and she helped spark the 14-2 run that spilled over into the final period and got the Vikings back in the game.
The spurt began with a charity toss from frosh Zara Zerman and concluded with a Brandt inside move that gave the Vikings their first lead of the evening, at 30-29 with 5:34 remaining. Along the way, Zoe Zerman netted six points, Brandt contributed four more and Zara Zerman threw in another free throw.
“I don’t think we’ve ever been down at halftime and come back and won,” said Battistelli. “I don’t remember being down that much, almost ever. These kids sure give you everything they have. They just fought. They found a spark and it grew.
“I think the difference was defensive pressure,” Battistelli continued. “You had to think eventually we would start to score some, but it didn’t look like it. I think the kids got jacked up a little bit. I think seeing a little weakness in them gave us some confidence. But it wasn’t easy.”
“We were more aggressive, going to the basket, jump stopping, getting the big girl (Terrell) to come out, finishing,” said Brandt. “Playing for my team is the most important thing. But I don’t want to end a game with my two other seniors (Zoe Zerman, Amber Kintzer) not on the floor. I didn’t want that to happen.”
With 4:54 left, it was a jumper by Liz Voight that gave the Vikings the lead for good. Brandt followed with a couple of foul shots, and after Zoe Zerman fouled out, Zara Zerman converted one-of-two free throws to extend the Northern Lebanon advantage to 35-31.
Down the stretch, Northern Lebanon scored its final points on nine-for-15 free throwing. Berks Catholic did manage to get off a wild, three-point attempt at the buzzer, that drew nothing but air.
“At halftime, I just explained to them very calmly, if we don’t play, we’re going to lose,” said Battistelli. “And that they can’t possibly want to go out that way. We needed to play offense. We must play offense. It was very little technical stuff. It was about manning up and wanting to the score the ball. It worked.
“Zeke (Zara Zerman) and Liz’s play led to that defensive pressure,” added Battistelli. “They initiated a lot of that havoc. We’re up one point and we’re asking them not to turn the ball over. I said to them, ‘We will not turn the ball over, and we will make free throws.’ There was a lot of bad in that game, but there was also a lot of intestinal fortitude.”
“Our defense was OK,” said Brandt. “We were playing good defense. But we weren’t being as patient on offense and we weren’t finishing. Keeping the big girl inside wasn’t intimidating, but it affected the way we finished.”
Brandt scored nine of the Vikings’ 12 first-half points and finished with a team-high 20. Terrell accounted for 14 of the Saints’ 18 field goals and 74 percent of her team’s total offense.
Neither side connected on a three-point field goal attempt, while Northern Lebanon outscored Berks Catholic 19-2 at the charity stripe.
“To be completely honest, the only reason we were even afloat was Brandt in the first half,” said Battistelli. “You had to think they weren’t going to go out like that. It was almost like they needed halftime for that communal breath.
“She (Brandt) did do a good job on her (Terrell),” Battistelli added. “Zoe and Brandt are different. Brandt is so fundamentally good. Zoe is a lot stronger than she appears. She’s powerful. She has a little bit of an edge to her. And Brandt is such a great help-defender.”
“She’s good,” said Brandt of Terrell. “She has a nice spin move. It was hard to keep a hand in her face and contain her because she’s so tall. I needed to step up. I needed to play defense so the guards could play defense. But I was getting a little stressed out about Zoe’s fouls.”
The sold-out home crowd spent much of the first half in disbelief, as the Vikings struggled mightily on offense and desperately sought someone beside Brandt to step up.
Berks Catholic led 10-6 after eight minutes of action, then notched six of the first seven points of the second quarter to establish a 16-7 margin. But thanks to a driving lay-in from Brandt, the Vikings closed to within 19-12 by halftime.
“On the bright side, she rebounded pretty well,” said Battistelli of Zoe Zerman’s play. “There’s nothing better than playing in front of your own fans. But I don’t think we play our best at home. It’s too much. You can try too hard to do too good. It’s one of those things.”
To purchase images in this article email jkfalk2005@yahoo.com, or to view more go to https://lebanonsportsbuzz.com/photo-gallery/.
2016-17 Northern Lebanon Girls’ Basketball Results
| DATE |
OPPONENT |
TIME |
RESULT |
|
|
| 12/09 # |
Littlestown
|
7:00 PM |
W 56-22 |
|
|
| 12/10 # |
Palmyra
|
7:00 PM |
W 43-24 |
|
|
| 12/13 |
@Middletown
|
7:30 PM |
W 66-52 |
|
|
| 12/14 |
@Garden Spot
|
7:30 PM |
W 53-23 |
|
|
| 12/16 * |
Annville-Cleona
|
7:30 PM |
W 58-24 |
|
|
| 12/19 * |
@Lebanon Catholic
|
7:30 PM |
L 42-45 |
|
|
| 12/21 * |
Columbia
|
7:30 PM |
W 56-36 |
|
|
| 12/27 # |
McCaskey
|
6:00 PM |
W 47-36 |
|
|
| 12/28 # |
@New Oxford
|
7:30 PM |
W 53-38 |
|
|
| 01/03 * |
@Pequea Valley
|
7:30 PM |
W 54-33 |
|
|
| 01/06 * |
@Lancaster Catholic
|
7:30 PM |
W 49-35 |
|
|
| 01/10 * |
Lancaster Mennonite
|
7:30 PM |
W 50-21 |
|
|
| 01/13 * |
Elco
|
7:30 PM |
W 51-22 |
|
|
| 01/17 * |
@Annville-Cleona
|
7:30 PM |
W 48-18 |
|
|
| 01/20 * |
Lebanon Catholic
|
7:30 PM |
W 44-31 |
|
|
| 01/21 |
Tulpehocken
|
7:30 PM |
W 57-29 |
|
|
| 01/24 * |
@Columbia
|
7:30 PM |
W 55-34 |
|
|
| 01/26 |
Manheim Central
|
7:30 PM |
W 48-23 |
|
|
| 01/27 * |
Pequea Valley
|
7:30 PM |
W 62-41 |
|
|
| 01/31 * |
Lancaster Catholic
|
7:30 PM |
W 50-41 |
|
|
| 02/03 * |
@Lancaster Mennonite
|
7:30 PM |
W 53-37 |
|
|
| 02/07 * |
@Elco
|
7:30 PM |
— |
|
|
| 02/11 # |
@Hempfield
|
|
W 53-31 |
|
|
| 02/14 # |
Cedar Crest
|
|
L 40-49 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| DATE |
OPPONENT |
TIME |
LOCATION |
|
| 02/24 # |
Berks Catholic
|
7:00 PM |
Northern Lebanon High School |
|
PIAA District Three
Class AAAA Power Rankings
| AAAA |
School |
W |
L |
T |
Rating |
TWP |
OWP |
| 1 |
Northern Lebanon |
21- |
1- |
0 |
0.745498 |
0.944690 |
0.502041 |
| 2 |
Wyomissing Area |
21- |
1- |
0 |
0.719206 |
0.953125 |
0.433304 |
| 3 |
Bishop McDevitt |
18- |
4- |
0 |
0.718183 |
0.855319 |
0.550573 |
| 4 |
Lancaster Catholic |
18- |
3- |
0 |
0.717888 |
0.869136 |
0.533029 |
| 5 |
Eastern York |
14- |
8- |
0 |
0.633947 |
0.686957 |
0.569158 |
| 6 |
York Suburban |
13- |
9- |
0 |
0.617953 |
0.652466 |
0.575770 |
| 7 |
West Perry |
16- |
6- |
0 |
0.601307 |
0.726027 |
0.448871 |
| 8 |
Berks Catholic |
11- |
9- |
0 |
0.588617 |
0.582126 |
0.596550 |
| 9 |
Susquehanna Township |
10- |
12- |
0 |
0.557850 |
0.514423 |
0.610927 |
| 10 |
Boiling Springs |
9- |
10- |
0 |
0.528173 |
0.526992 |
0.529617 |
| 11 |
Littlestown |
13- |
9- |
0 |
0.521781 |
0.592511 |
0.435333 |
| 12 |
East Pennsboro Area |
9- |
11- |
0 |
0.515968 |
0.472500 |
0.569094 |
| 13 |
Eastern Lebanon County |
8- |
13- |
0 |
0.460719 |
0.380510 |
0.558752 |
| 14 |
Kennard Dale |
7- |
15- |
0 |
0.447336 |
0.366029 |
0.546712 |
| 15 |
Hamburg Area |
8- |
14- |
0 |
0.414205 |
0.377990 |
0.458468 |
| 16 |
James Buchanan |
5- |
16- |
0 |
0.392577 |
0.280206 |
0.529920 |
| 17 |
Lancaster Mennonite |
5- |
17- |
0 |
0.371422 |
0.227477 |
0.547354 |
| 18 |
Bermudian Springs |
5- |
17- |
0 |
0.346486 |
0.215640 |
0.506409 |
| 19 |
Schuylkill Valley |
2- |
20- |
0 |
0.280226 |
0.094340 |
0.507421 |
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