{"id":116995,"date":"2026-02-18T11:23:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T11:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/116995\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T11:23:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T11:23:09","slug":"fpd-girls-dominate-first-round-playoff-game-59-26-against-bethlehem-christian-the-macon-melody","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/116995\/","title":{"rendered":"FPD girls dominate first round playoff game 59-26 against Bethlehem Christian \u2013 The Macon Melody"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"FPD defenders pressure Bethlehem Christian\u2019s Titan Sapp (22) during the Vikings\u2019 win over the Knights Tuesday night. Photo by Jason Vorhees \/ The Melody<\/p>\n

The suspense that typically awaits coaches before a high school game is usually enough to push the blood pressure up.<\/p>\n

Throw in maybe a team\u2019s best game of the year only four days earlier \u2014 and most of the team unavailable for any practices until the gameday walk-through \u2014 and Doug Wasden\u2019s worries were understandable.<\/p>\n

And, as it turns out, a waste of stress.<\/p>\n

FPD more than responded following last week\u2019s region tournament championship loss and steamrolled Bethlehem Christian from the start en route to a 59-26 win Tuesday in the first round of the GIAA girls Class 4A state tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was watching game film all weekend,\u201d Wasden said. \u201cThey\u2019re aggressive, they shoot the ball well, they drive the ball well. I told the girls and the coaches, \u2018This game scares me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, the contest had \u201ctrap game\u201d written all over it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt did,\u201d Wasden said. \u201cOn top of that, we were off (school Monday) and off today. We just don\u2019t do as well \u2026 I\u2019d rather be in school.\u201d<\/p>\n

None of Wasden\u2019s nightmare scenarios came close to making an appearance on Tuesday as FPD won its fifth game by at least 30 points, needing only 70 minutes to advance with a 17-11 record while the Knights finished the year 10-16, having set a program mark for wins.<\/p>\n

\"\"FPD\u2019s Bowen Matthews (14) puts up a shot during the Vikings\u2019 first round GIAA playoff win over Bethlehem Christian Tuesday night. Photo by Jason Vorhees \/ The Melody<\/p>\n

The Vikings will head just up the road for the second round, taking on George Walton on Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Stratford.<\/p>\n

The quarterfinal rounds for boys and girls, Friday and Saturday, are at Stratford, FPD, and Tattnall, with semifinals and finals at Columbus State.<\/p>\n

FPD\u2019s first gathering after Friday\u2019s 74-70 overtime loss to Stratford in the region tournament finale included about half of the team on Monday, the other half on a school trip.<\/p>\n

Then came Tuesday\u2019s walk-through. Not a bit of sluggishness followed.<\/p>\n

FPD had a shutout until Sadie Green got one of the Knights\u2019 few good looks of the first eight minutes, and dropped a 23-footer to cut the deficit to 9-3 with 1:50 left in the quarter.<\/p>\n

\"\"FPD\u2019s Elcee Leslein (10) puts up a shot during the Vikings\u2019 first round GIAA playoff win over Bethlehem Christian Tuesday night. Photo by Jason Vorhees \/ The Melody<\/p>\n

The visitors then resumed the drought and ended the first with an air ball on an open 13-footer, trailing 13-3.<\/p>\n

The margin could\u2019ve been more had the Vikings not missed a chunk of close shots in the paint, finishing 5 of 17 from the floor.<\/p>\n

Of course, Bethlehem Christian countered with a 1-for-9 opening quarter.<\/p>\n

The Knights started finding a little groove after the deficit grew to 21-5, scoring on two straight possessions for the first time, coinciding with some rugged Vikings play on four empty possessions.<\/p>\n

But just like that, FPD got going again with Morgann Ford\u2019s bucket low and Matthews\u2019 runner.<\/p>\n

Still, FPD managed only four points in the final 4:19, and led 25-9 at the break.<\/p>\n

\"\"FPD\u2019s Bri Crosby (20) attempts a to save the ball from going out of bounce during the Vikings\u2019 first round GIAA playoff win over Bethlehem Christian Tuesday night. Photo by Jason Vorhees \/ The Melody<\/p>\n

\u201cWe played really well in the first half, but I was not happy with our offensive result,\u201d Wasden said. \u201cI felt like we left a lot of points on the floor. We talked about offensive rebounds, or possessions, and we needed more rebounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefense was really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Green had all but two of Bethlehem Christian\u2019s points, while Bowen Matthews had almost half of the Vikings\u2019 with 12.<\/p>\n

The second half was more of the same, after a sluggish start with three straight one-and-dones. FPD then scored on four consecutive trips, two buckets from Elcee Leslein, for a 33-9 lead with just less than five minutes left in the third quarter.<\/p>\n

Wasden started substituting more late in the third, and it was 40-15 after three.<\/p>\n

Matthews finished with 25 points, with nine each from Leslein and Hannah Strange.<\/p>\n

It was certainly a night Wasden didn\u2019t expect but was thrilled to see.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like the fact that we came out with some intensity and urgency,\u201d he said. \u201cSomething I push all the time is we\u2019ve got to play the beginning like we\u2019re down 10 with two minutes left.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd just know this was going to be our absolute last game in this gym this year, my seniors, you just don\u2019t know. We came out and were effective.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FPD defenders pressure Bethlehem Christian\u2019s Titan Sapp (22) during the Vikings\u2019 win over the Knights Tuesday night. Photo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-116995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116995","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=116995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}