Kamryn Gallis spent the last two seasons sitting at the end of the Bethlehem Catholic bench filling up water bottles.<\/p>\n
Cheering on her future teammates. Watching. Waiting for her opportunity.<\/p>\n
That finally came on Monday. Dec. 1 when the Golden Hawks visited Liberty, a PIAA 6A Tournament qualifier last season, in a tremendous season-opening matchup at Memorial Gymnasium.<\/p>\n
The freshman daughter of the program\u2019s former all-time leading scorer, Tiffany Bedics-Gallis, took advantage of the spotlight by scoring 25 points to lead all scorers and send a message to the league with a 68-34 victory over the Hurricanes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say it was all about trusting the work that we put in. We\u2019ve been in the gym for months, so just like coach [Arnold Alleyne] always says, not rising to the occasion but sinking to our preparation,\u201d Gallis said on her breakout game. \u201cThat\u2019s really what we focus on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gallis featured a confident perimeter jumper, efficiency at the free-throw line, as well as an ability to get there often, to help the defending District 11 5A champions start the season on a high note.<\/p>\n
The official regular season, that is.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve put the work in. This is probably our 13th game already because our fall schedule has been so heavy,\u201d Alleyne said. \u201cSince you play in the fall so much already, you come in game one and just keep moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Returning senior starters Aliyah Brame and Leah Ault looked great as well for the Golden Hawks as they prepare to take on extended leadership roles with almost every other contributing player last season lost to graduation or transfer<\/p>\n
Ault drilled a corner 3-pointer on the season\u2019s first possession and racked up 13 points in the process as her role shifts from a defensive stopper into a reliable scorer for Alleyne\u2019s group. Needless to say, she\u2019s enjoying the extra responsibility, as is the rest of the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just grateful that my coach has entrusted me with being that leader and a captain on the team, helping to guide the freshmen,\u201d Ault said. \u201cBut, obviously, Kam and Ayva [Radande] are doing amazing with fulfilling that role and I\u2019m just grateful that I have the opportunity to see that and help guide them through this.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s one thing for a young player to catch an opponent by surprise early on in her career with an impactful offensive game, but it\u2019s quite another to step in and not miss a beat defensively against one of the state\u2019s top guards.<\/p>\n
Liberty senior Ava Kopetskie is a returning tri-MVP of the EPC, and even though the Golden Hawks had already invoked the mercy rule in the fourth quarter, Gallis kept providing relentless defensive effort against the Loyola Maryland commit.<\/p>\n
It led to a five-second violation getting called, declaring the star freshman\u2019s arrival and showing that nothing will be easy against her and Bethlehem Catholic this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole game I\u2019m just keeping the mindset of being hungry and being a dog,\u201d Gallis said. \u201cShe\u2019s a great player, so I\u2019m just trying my best to keep my hustle 100 percent and trying my best to shut her down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lehighton stuns Notre Dame-Green Pond in Colonial League opener<\/p>\n
As the defending Colonial League girls champions with a handful of returning starters, Notre Dame-Green Pond, as it often does, entered the season as the league favorite. The Crusaders are closing in on 1,000 wins in program history for a reason, but a brutal start to the campaign was made worse as they travelled to Lehighton for the league season-opener.<\/p>\n
Lehighton received contributions from Ryleigh Trotman (14 points) and Leah Uyvari (nine points) while freshmen Brielle Parliman and Ava Serfass added 15 more to help the Indians knock off the defending champions 42-32 on Thursday night. All four players scored in a massive fourth quarter as coach Nadia Gauronsky\u2019s group pulled away for an early statement victory.<\/p>\n
Alexa Davis enjoys a career night for the Blue Eagles<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t take long for someone to deliver the first 30-point game of the season as Nazareth senior Alexa Davis bombarded Freedom with eight 3-pointers on her way to the first 30-point game of her high school career in a lopsided 60-29 win.<\/p>\n
After a disappointing 22-point game as a team against Hazleton, the Blue Eagles couldn\u2019t seem to miss in their first league game of the season, which was also their home opener. Sophomore guard Karly Leszcynski added four more treys while Carly Brown added a 13th in Monday night\u2019s rout of the Patriots.<\/p>\n
Standout players<\/p>\n
Eva Glover, Emmaus: The whole league knows about Gabby DeVita in Emmaus, but a new name is emerging for the defending EPC champions as well. Sophomore Eva Glover appeared in just three games last season without registering a point, but a 20-point effort against Nazareth followed up a previous career-high of 14 points against Allentown Central Catholic on Monday.<\/p>\n
Jayla Rosario, Dieruff: In what could be the most anticipated Dieruff season in 20 years, the center of the excitement, senior guard Jayla Rosario, is showing why. She\u2019s already registered a pair of 20-point games for the Huskies who handled all four opponents this week by double digits to start the season 4-0.<\/p>\n
Maggie Gorman, Saucon Valley: There wasn\u2019t much to get excited about last season for Saucon Valley and one of those returning players is doing her part to flip the script this year. Maggie Gorman exploded for 20 points in the season-opener against Moravian Academy to kickstart what could be a turnaround season for the Panthers in John Tone\u2019s first season.<\/p>\n
Player of the Week<\/p>\n
Kamryn Gallis, Bethlehem Catholic: Gallis wasn\u2019t just a one-game wonder against Liberty as the breakout star engineered another team-high 16 points against William Allen to help the Golden Hawks outscore league opponents by 76 points in just two games. She proceeded to make all 11 of her free throws against South Bronx Prep to close out a 64-62 and cap off a 24-point night.<\/p>\n
Coach Alleyne\u2019s new playmaker shouldn\u2019t just have her sights on the area\u2019s freshman of the year because it appears player of the year is potentially in the cards for the Lehigh Valley\u2019s newest superstar.<\/p>\n
Other notes<\/p>\n
Easton is off to a scintillating start as a balanced attack of Nat Amato, Melina Cole, Gabby Wismer, Elena Brunetti,\u00a0 Ava Muhammad and others sparked two blowout wins against Northampton and Allentown Central Catholic to open the season \u2026 Stroudsburg\u2019s new look big three of Teagan Strunk, Jorai Hunter and Adriana Borzio all averaged double figures in a 3-1 start for the Mounties \u2026 Natalie Conner\u2019s 22 points were enough for Northwestern Lehigh to hold off Northern Lehigh 58-44 in an exciting league opener \u2026 Juliana Bonham erupted for 24 points in a 61-33 win over Jim Thorpe to begin her highly anticipated sophomore season \u2026 Cheryllana Cunningham contributed a pair of double-digit performances to lead Parkland to a 2-0 start to the season \u2026 Kendra Morgan and Roxana Cardenas combined for 37 points to help Salisbury start with a win over Lehigh Valley Academy \u2026 Jodi Bowen added another 20-point performance to a terrific week for local players with a 22-point effort to pace Pocono Mountain West against ES North.<\/p>\n
Standings (through 12\/7)<\/p>\n
Eastern Pennsylvania Conference<\/p>\n
(overall and division record)<\/p>\n
Northampton Division<\/p>\n
Becahi; 3-0; 1-0<\/p>\n
Easton; 2-1; 1-0<\/p>\n
Nazareth; 2-2; 1-0<\/p>\n
Liberty; 1-2; 0-1<\/p>\n
Freedom; 1-2; 0-1<\/p>\n
Northampton; 1-2; 0-1<\/p>\n
Lehigh Division<\/p>\n
Dieruff; 4-0; 1-0<\/p>\n
Parkland; 2-0; 1-0<\/p>\n
Emmaus; 2-1; 1-0<\/p>\n
Whitehall; 1-3; 0-1<\/p>\n
ACCHS; 0-4; 0-1<\/p>\n
William Allen; 0-3; 0-2<\/p>\n
Monroe Division<\/p>\n
Stroudsburg; 3-1; 2-0<\/p>\n
PM West; 2-1; 2-0<\/p>\n
PM East; 1-1; 1-1<\/p>\n
Pleasant Valley; 1-2; 1-1<\/p>\n
ES South; 0-3; 0-2<\/p>\n
ES North; 0-5; 0-2<\/p>\n
Colonial League<\/p>\n
(overall and division record)<\/p>\n
East Division<\/p>\n
Wilson Area; 3-0; 1-0<\/p>\n
Pen Argyl; 2-0; 1-0<\/p>\n
Bangor; 0-3; 0-0<\/p>\n
Notre Dame-GP; 0-3; 0-0<\/p>\n
Moravian Academy; 0-3; 0-2<\/p>\n
West Division<\/p>\n
NW Lehigh; 2-1; 1-0<\/p>\n
Palmerton; 1-0; 1-0<\/p>\n
Lehighton; 1-0; 0-0<\/p>\n
Jim Thorpe; 0-1; 0-0<\/p>\n
Northern Lehigh; 0-2; 0-2<\/p>\n
South Division<\/p>\n
Catasauqua; 2-0; 1-0<\/p>\n
Saucon Valley; 2-0; 0-0<\/p>\n
Salisbury; 1-0; 0-0<\/p>\n
Palisades; 0-2; 0-0<\/p>\n
Southern Lehigh; 0-3; 0-1<\/p>\n
Rankings<\/p>\n
1. Becahi 3-0<\/p>\n
2. Parkland 2-0<\/p>\n
3. Emmaus 2-1<\/p>\n
4. Easton 2-1<\/p>\n
5. Dieruff 4-0<\/p>\n
6. Nazareth 2-2<\/p>\n
7. NW Lehigh 2-1<\/p>\n
8. Palmerton 1-0<\/p>\n
9. Wilson 3-0<\/p>\n
10. Lehighton 1-0<\/p>\n
Just missed: Stroudsburg (3-1), Catasauqua (2-0), Executive Education (1-1)<\/p>\n
Top scorers (through 12\/7)<\/p>\n
(Name, school, average)<\/p>\n
Juliana Bonham; Wilson Area; 24.0<\/p>\n
Jodi Bowen; PM West; 22.0<\/p>\n
Natalie Conner; NW Lehigh; 22.0<\/p>\n
Kamryn Gallis; Becahi; 21.7<\/p>\n
Jayla Rosario; Dieruff; 19.3<\/p>\n
Roxana Cardenas; Salisbury; 19.0<\/p>\n
Ava Kopetskie; Liberty; 18.0<\/p>\n
Kendra Morgan; Salisbury; 18.0<\/p>\n
Courtney Connell; Palmerton; 17.0<\/p>\n
Hailey Jenkins; Catasauqua; 16.5<\/p>\n
Aliyah Brame; Becahi; 14.3<\/p>\n
Ryleigh Trotman; Lehighton; 14.0<\/p>\n
Kaylin Stewart; Catasauqua; 14.0<\/p>\n
Leah Ault; Becahi; 13.7<\/p>\n
Teagan Strunk; Stroudsburg; 13.3<\/p>\n
Maggie Gorman; Saucon Valley; 13.0<\/p>\n
Zyarriah Lanier; PM West; 13.0<\/p>\n
Gabby DeVita; Emmaus; 12.7<\/p>\n
Aniya Holder; Dieruff; 12.7<\/p>\n
Cheryllana Cunningham; Parkland; 12.5<\/p>\n
Kendall Medina; Executive Education; 12.5<\/p>\n
Eva Glover; Emmaus; 12.3<\/p>\n
Eliana Marques; Southern Lehigh; 12.0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kamryn Gallis spent the last two seasons sitting at the end of the Bethlehem Catholic bench filling up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,29375,305,726,432],"class_list":["post-55410","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\/55410","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=55410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}