In Bethlehem Catholic coach Arnold Alleyne\u2019s three seasons at the helm, there\u2019s been several constants.<\/p>\n
Relentless effort, district championships, and on the flip side, state tournament struggles against Archbishop Wood.<\/p>\n
That trend continued as Archbishop Wood raced ahead early and cruised to a 69-32 victory over the Golden Hawks in Saturday afternoon\u2019s PIAA 5A Tournament quarterfinal contest at Pottstown High School. The Vikings, in pursuit of their sixth consecutive state championship appearance and fifth title in that stretch, advance to the semifinal round to play the winner of Lampeter Strasburg and Crestwood on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t want to lose to the same team three years in a row, but it just shows that we have to get better,\u201d Alleyne said.<\/p>\n
The Golden Hawks fed off their full court press and forced turnovers throughout their run to the state quarterfinal, but the well-rounded, equally physical Vikings protected the ball early and capitalized on nearly every possession to jump ahead to a 24-4 lead just one play into the second quarter.<\/p>\n
The District 12 champions didn\u2019t register a turnover until the 2:52 mark in the second quarter, a point where they had already pulled ahead 35-13.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey ran a good system\u2026the things that they\u2019re running, they aren\u2019t fancy plays,\u201d Alleyne said. \u201cBut they pressure you, make you make a mistake and if you fall asleep, they\u2019ll hit you with a back door [cut] and get a wide-open three. Credit to them and their system that they run.\u201d<\/p>\n
Becahi\u2019s frustration boiled over into the third quarter as senior guard Leah Ault and Alleyne picked up technical fouls as a 19-6 third quarter ended any hope of a comeback and enacted the mercy rule with the Vikings leading 64-27.<\/p>\n
Abbie Kelly showcased a terrific inside scoring ability with a perfect 6-6 shooting performance inside the arc on her way to a team-high 17 points. Ursinus commit and sixth woman Emma Yogis provided the outside scoring with a pair of triples while getting fouled on a third before making all three attempts from the charity stripe.<\/p>\n
Makayla Finnegan added two 3-pointers of her own as part of an 11-point afternoon for the Vikings. Nine different players scored in total for the balanced Vikings whose ability to dribble out of Becahi\u2019s pressure and convert open looks led to a similar result in another PIAA Tournament matchup between the two Pennsylvania powers.<\/p>\n
Senior guard Aliyah Brame, who will continue her career at Bryant University next season, led the Golden Hawks with nine points in the final game of her high school career.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing a Bethlehem Catholic student, and athlete, was one of the hardest, yet most flourishing things I\u2019ve ever gotten in my life so far,\u201d Brame said. \u201cIt\u2019s brought me these friendships, and my family, and a lot of people who I\u2019m going to call my sisters for my whole life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI give everything to Coach Arnold [Alleyne]. He grew us. He did everything he could, and sometimes you just fall short, but it\u2019ll always be Bethlehem Catholic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brame graduates with four other seniors \u2013 Leah Ault, Brooklyn Lewis, Kendall Nickisher and Mariyah Arroyo \u2013 who will be difficult for Alleyne to say goodbye to after a tremendous run to an 86-32 record, two EPC championship appearances, four district championships and nine state playoff wins.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur seniors are gone now, and that\u2019s one of the hardest parts. The separation is the toughest part,\u201d Alleyne said. \u201cI can take a loss, but not being able to see [them] every day is one of the toughest things. They\u2019ve always battled for me from fall to now, and I credit their obedience and working hard for me. I\u2019m grateful to be around them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m proud of Bethlehem Catholic girls basketball.\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
Archbishop Wood 69, Bethlehem Catholic 32<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
ARCHBISHOP WOOD (69)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kelly 6-7 5-8 17, Yogis 2-4 5-5 11, Finnegan 4-4 1-1 11, McDonald 3-6 0-1 7, C. Thompson 3-3 0-0 6, Payne 2-2 2-2 6, Besachio 2-6 0-0 5, N. Thompson 1-4 0-0 3, Whalen 1-5 1-4 3, Campbell 0-0 0-0 0, Annulis 0-0 0-0 0, Holst 0-0 0-0 0, Wabs 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 24-42 14-21 69.<\/p>\n
BETHLEHEM CATHOLIC (32)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brame 4-8 0-0 9, Ault 3-6 0-1 8, Radande 3-3 0-2 6, Gallis 1-5 3-4 5, Lewis 0-4 2-2 2, Gordon 0-1 1-2 1, Davis 0-0 1-2 1, Nickisher 0-4 0-0 0, Borsuk 0-1 0-0 0, Arroyo 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 11-33 7-13 32.<\/p>\n
Archbishop Wood 21 \u2013 24 \u2013 19 \u2013 5 \u2014 69<\/p>\n
Bethlehem Catholic 4 \u2013 17 \u2013 6 \u2013 5 \u2014 32<\/p>\n
3-pointers: Archbishop Wood (7-19) Finnegan 2, Yogis 2, McDonald, Besachio, N Thompson. Becahi (3-13) Ault 2, Brame.<\/p>\n
Rebounds: Archbishop Wood 17. Becahi 12.<\/p>\n
Assists: Archbishop Wood 14. Becahi 4.<\/p>\n
Turnovers: Archbishop Wood 6. Becahi 13.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Bethlehem Catholic coach Arnold Alleyne\u2019s three seasons at the helm, there\u2019s been several constants. Relentless effort, district…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,29375,305,726,432],"class_list":["post-138486","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\/138486","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=138486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}