There was some question Tuesday night over whether Bethlehem Christian senior standout Gabe Transue needed seven or eight points in his team’s game at Executive Education to reach 2,000 points in his career.

“My athletic director [Brian Algeo] thought it was seven, but my coach [Matt DeJesus] told me before the game that it was actually eight,” Transue said.

There was no doubt Transue was going to get the milestone. In fact, he got it in the first quarter when he scored 11 of what turned out to be a game-high 30 points.

To cap off the celebration for Transue and a sizable contingent of fans at Executive, Bethlehem Christian got arguably its best win in what is so far a 19-2 season.

The Panthers built a 37-31 halftime lead, stretched it to 56-49 after three periods, and held on for a 70-67 victory in an entertaining battle of two of the area’s top independent programs.

Transue became the ninth player in Lehigh Valley-area basketball history to reach 2,000 points, but the third in three seasons after Parkland’s Nick Coval did it in 2024 and Lehigh Christian Academy’s Jacob Lewis got there last year.

The milestone came on a rebound of his own miss with 1:19 left in the first period. It gave Bethlehem Christian a 16-11 lead.

“It means a lot to me, especially coming here against a good team like Executive,” the 6-foot-2 senior forward from Nazareth said. “Coming here and beating them at their home was big. I’ve just tried to keep going to practice every day with my guys and getting better. It’s a big milestone.”

DeJesus said, “It was great for Gabe to get it tonight in a big game like this. We had a good crowd, and our fans travel well for a small school. I am not shocked at all by how well Gabe played.”

Transue entered the game averaging 28.6 points and has had big games against big opponents earlier in the season, tallying 20 apiece against Nazareth and Dieruff, 34 against Catasauqua and 27 against Allentown Central Catholic.

He scored 260 points as a freshman, 468 as a sophomore, and 693 last year as a sophomore. He went over 600 points this season at Executive.

“This is big for us because a lot of people only think we can only beat Christian schools or we can only score so many points against other Christian schools, so we have shown we can play with anybody,” Transue said. “I don’t thrrink I have anything else to prove, but some people are still saying that I am only doing this well because I am at a 1A school.”

Bethlehem Christian won the District 11 1A title last year and will go into the postseason as the top seed in the district. Last year, the Panthers lost in the second round of the state tournament to Philadelphia power Sankofa, but Transue believes his team can go much deeper into the state tournament this season.

“We can definitely go to Hershey,” Transue said. “Sankofa is always tough, but it we can get by them, we can be in the state championship game. We’re getting a lot better. We’re working harder and harder at practice. We are rebounding better, playing defense better. We’re playing better overall, and it’s nice to get the support we get.”

All of that was on display against a talented Executive team that fell to 11-4.

The Raptors did a better defensive job on Transue in the second half after he continually found openings in the first 16 minutes when he scored 23 points. Transue had just three field goals after halftime and no 3s after hitting three treys in the first half.

However, Myles Harris, another 1,000-point scorer for the Panthers, scored all nine of his points in the second half and made a layup in the final seconds that virtually sealed the win. Junior Deion Swift scored 15 of his 28 after intermission.

“When we lost Nazareth and Central early in the year, I think a lot of people doubted us,” Swift said. “Executive is a really good team, and beating them showed we can actually compete with a lot of teams from around here. Gabe getting 2,000 gave us a boost.”

Swift said the defense still needs to get better.

“We kind of went shot-for-shot with them,” he said. “We can’t allow that. As soon as we make a 3, we’ve got to get back on defense and get a stop. We are always going to attack the basket.”

Executive coach Ray Barbosa was not happy with a number of calls, and an assistant coach received a technical foul in the second quarter, which meant Barbosa couldn’t stand up over the rest of the game.

“I don’t think we played our best, but I will be honest, I think the officiating around here has to be better,” he said. “When we’re in big games like this, we expect to have veteran referees, and I just don’t think those guys were experienced enough to be there.

“But at the end of the day, our team gave up too many points. We didn’t defend anybody. They scored 70 points, and we’re never going to beat a team like Bethlehem Christian giving up 70 points. I expected a better effort defensively, but we just didn’t get that tonight.”

Executive was led by Eshaan Tung’s 17 points, while Jaxon Loper added 13.

Other games

Stroudsburg 69, Wallenpaupack 50: The Mounties (11-11, 6-10) clinched a District 11 6A berth as Jarel Jackson scored 21 points and Deon Davis added 16.

Notre Dame-Green Pond 67, Wilson 56: The Crusaders finished the Colonial League regular season with an 18-0 mark as Cody Driscoll scored 21 points and Justin Manning added 20. Notre Dame improved to 20-2, while the Warriors fell to 12-9, 10-8. Lafayette Acree scored 14 for Wilson.

Lehighton 62, Jim Thorpe 45: Blake Roberts scored 26 points and Cole Dietz added 22. The Indians improved to 13-9, 10-8, while the Olympians fell to 10-12, 9-8, despite 18 points by Pierce Gothard.

Northern Lehigh 65, Palmerton 44: Kellen Bauer scored 21 points, and Chayce LoPinto and Colin Karetsky added 14 and 13, respectively, as the Bulldogs finished the season 7-15, 6-12. Northern Lehigh made 12 3-pointers.

Catasauqua 62, Southern Lehigh 47: The Rough Riders had three players reach double figures as they closed out the regular season at 17-5, 14-4 league. Reece Lopez led the way with 16 points while Aalani Nix and Frankie Pujols added 15 and 13, respectively. Morgan Capuano led Southern Lehigh (14-8, 11-7) with 16, and Jack Fistner added 12.