![\"Easton's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/TMC-L-epcchampgirls-12-1.jpg\")
Easton\u2019s Eva Jordan takes a foul shot against Bethlehem Catholic on Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026, during the EPC girls basketball championship game at PPL Center in Allentown. (April Gamiz\/The Morning Call)<\/p>\nEaston freshman Eva Jordan stepped to the foul line on Tuesday night at PPL Center in Allentown needing just one free throw to punch Easton\u2019s ticket to the EPC title game.<\/p>\n
In that championship game back at PPL Center on Thursday night, she stepped back to the same foul line in a tie game with three seconds left with the weight of a 10-year league title drought resting on her shoulders.<\/p>\n
After Jordan missed the first with no timeouts remaining, all Easton coach Dave Lutz could do was watch his players on the court and the bench take matters into their own hands to prepare Jordan for one more attempt.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could see after she missed the first one how good her teammates are. And you could hear the bench, too, being very positive,\u201d Lutz said. \u201cBelieve it or not, I was really confident she was going to make the second one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tuesday night\u2019s hero did just that and buried the second free throw to give top-seeded Easton a 35-34 win over No. 2 Bethlehem Catholic in Thursday night\u2019s EPC championship game at PPL Center. It marks just the second EPC title for Easton since realignment in 2014 and comes exactly 10 years after the first in 2016.<\/p>\n
Easton\u2019s Eva Jordan takes a foul shot against Bethlehem Catholic on Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026, during the EPC girls basketball championship game at PPL Center in Allentown. (April Gamiz\/The Morning Call)<\/p>\n
Jordan found herself on the foul line just seconds after Bethlehem Catholic senior Aliyah Brame tied the game with a layup on a baseline out of bounds play, but the Golden Hawks lost track of the score on the ensuing inbound and intentionally fouled with three seconds left.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to blame myself,\u201d Bethlehem Catholic coach Arnold Alleyne said. \u201cI\u2019ll grow from it. I\u2019ll be better. I\u2019ll give more reminders, so I\u2019m not going to put it on [a player]. I\u2019ll put it on my chest, and I\u2019ll make sure I\u2019m specific on what\u2019s happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a moment that could\u2019ve easily overwhelmed the talented freshman, Jordan was unfazed in large part because of the response of her teammates.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to stay relaxed,\u201d Jordan said. \u201cMy teammates calmed me down, so that really helped me. I felt confident.\u201d<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t her only big play of the quarter as she also delivered the first field goal of the quarter with under two minutes remaining to break a 30-30 tie on a great feed from senior center Liana Cole.<\/p>\n
\u201cEva\u2019s a great player. I know she\u2019s a freshman and sometimes nerves may get to her, but I knew that if I got the ball down low to her, she would be able to make that layup,\u201d Cole said.<\/p>\n
The Easton defense, which shut out the Golden Hawks for over seven minutes to begin the fourth quarter and held them to just four points in the quarter overall, forced a turnover on the ensuing possession before sophomore standout Melina Cole went to the line to make it 34-30 with less than a minute remaining.<\/p>\n
Just over a week removed from Becahi\u2019s furious second-half comeback in the regular-season finale, Lutz trusted his team\u2019s man-to-man defense time and time again to disrupt their talented offense.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur girls have improved doing that over the year,\u201d Lutz said. \u201cI think our defense has been pretty solid all year. That\u2019s another thing I like about this team. They play hard, and they really survived a couple Becahi runs, and you have to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alleyne tried to get his team into their sets, but he also credited the way Easton defended and prevented any sort of flow for his potent offense that was held to a season-low 34 points for the second time this season by the Red Rovers.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth teams were playing really hard, and they got us out of rhythm and out of sorts,\u201d Alleyne said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t run anything. We just tried to make a play, and you know what \u2026 they made one more play than we did, and that was pretty much the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lianna Cole and her three senior teammates \u2013 Nat Amato, Ava Muhammad and Armoni Dowe \u2013 began their high school careers losing 52-49 in overtime against Allentown Central Catholic in the same gym from the same sideline.<\/p>\n
Three years later, Cole and her teammates finally had the chance to celebrate with an EPC championship trophy that was the only to truly elude them throughout their successful careers. She\u2019s going to take her time both celebrating and cherishing it.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing very close my freshman year, losing in overtime to Central really hit hard, and trying to win it with my older sister Evalyse as a sophomore and losing in the semifinals and not even making it here last year \u2026 winning this one means everything,\u201d Cole said. \u201cBeing able to bring it home is really fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
The win was made even more special when her younger sister, Melina, was announced as the EPC Championship MVP with her 12-point performance to lead all scorers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI absolutely love my sister. It\u2019s amazing that she\u2019s able to play,\u201d Cole said. \u201cShe\u2019s more of an offensive player \u2013 I got the defensive side of the family \u2013 but even just seeing her walk up there with the biggest smile on her face makes me happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lutz has enjoyed several championships, undefeated regular seasons and immense success throughout his many years as the coach for Easton, but it\u2019s clear that he views this group as a truly special one.<\/p>\n
Now, they have the trophy to prove it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe girls really work hard in practice. They\u2019re an unselfish team, and they stick together,\u201d Lutz said. \u201cYou always want, when you have a team like that, you always want them to hopefully win a championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had a couple district championships in between, but it\u2019s always nice to win a league title.\u201d<\/p>\n
Derek Bast is a freelance reporter who can be found on Twitter\/X at @derek_bast or reached by email at derekbast11@gmail.com.<\/p>\n
Easton 35, Bethlehem Catholic 34<\/p>\n
Becahi 10 \u2013 8\u2013 12 \u2013 4\u2014 34<\/p>\n
Easton 8 \u2013 12\u2013 8 \u2013 7\u2014 35<\/p>\n
BECAHI (34)<\/p>\n
Brame 3 2-2 9, Gallis 4 0-0 9, Nickisher 2 0-0 6, Radande 2 0-0 4, Lewis 0 4-5 4, Ault 1 0-0 2, Fagan 0 0-0 0, Gordon 0 0-0 0. Totals 12 6-7 34.<\/p>\n
EASTON (35)<\/p>\n
M. Cole 4 2-2 12, Amato 3 0-0 7, Jordan 2 1-2 7, Brunetti 2 2-2 6, L. Cole 0 2-4 2, Wismer 0 2-2 2, Muhammad 0 0-0 0. Totals 11 9-12 35.<\/p>\n
3-pointers: Becahi (4) Nickisher 2, Brame, Gallis. Easton (4) M. Cole 2, Amato, Jordan. Rebounds: Becahi 26 (Radande 9). Easton 17 (L. Cole 8).<\/p>\n
Assists: Becahi 9. Easton 6 (Brunetti 3).<\/p>\n
Turnovers: Becahi 14, Easton 19.<\/p>\n
Officials: Tim Hurd, Rich Gable, Brent Brugler.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Easton freshman Eva Jordan stepped to the foul line on Tuesday night at PPL Center in Allentown needing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112696,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,29375,305,726,432],"class_list":["post-112695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-high-school-basketball","tag-high-school-sports","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}