Spring-Ford does enough to hold off Nazareth in PIAA 6A opener

BETHLEHEM >> The nature of the District 1 tournament, with several levels of playbacks and a total of eleven teams ultimately qualifying for states, makes for some strange scenarios when teams play their PIAA opener.

For example, Spring-Ford went into Friday’s matchup with Nazareth, the third-place finisher from District 11, off their worst two-game stretch of the season — in fact, their only two in-state losses all year. The Rams’ most recent contest, a third-place game last week against Abington, saw SF yield 74 points to the Ghosts — by far a season high.

For the first three quarters, it was evident the Rams had spent the week shoring up their defense. But some shaky offensive play meant Spring-Ford had to fight to hold on late against District 11’s Nazareth, 48-44.

Spring-Ford held Nazareth to 16 points in the first three quarters and withstood some late hot shooting from the Blue Eagles to advance to Tuesday’s second round, where they’ll take on Cardinal O’Hara, the District 12 champion and a winner over Plymouth-Whitemarsh on Friday, at a location and time to be determined.

“At this time of year, it’s all about survive and advance,” said Spring-Ford coach Mickey McDaniel. “It wasn’t our best game offensively, we clearly have some areas to work on in practice. But the first-game jitters are gone, and now we’ll just go play basketball.”

Cassie Marte led an at-times sloppy Rams offense with 14 points, while Lucy Olsen added 13 in the victory. The Rams’ trademark defense was strong throughout, confusing Nazareth with a mixture of full-court pressure and half-court man-to-man looks. Olivia Olsen was tough on the inside against Nazareth’s leading scorer, sophomore center Talya Brugler, playing a big role in holding her scoreless until the midpoint of the third quarter.

The Rams limited Nazareth to four first-half field goals, forcing a dozen turnovers before halftime. But Spring-Ford’s own offense was also somewhat limited in the opening stanza, with a pair of 3s from Marte the only highlight of a 10-5 first quarter.

SF’s offense finally got a spark when they inserted Skylar Sullivan and Hailey Hudak off the bench. The duo combined for ten second-quarter points, Sullivan creating two opportunities for three-point plays — giving the Rams their first double-digit lead — and Hudak crashing the boards for a putback to give SF a 21-9 advantage. Another deep ball from Marte gave her 11 points before the break, the exact margin Spring-Ford would take into halftime at 23-12.

“When you come off the bench, you’ve got to be able to contribute in any number of ways,” said Sullivan. “It’s great to step in, play a role and contribute to a big win.”

“To Sky’s credit, she really recovered from a couple of tough games to step up tonight,” added McDaniel. “That’s what you need this time of year.”

The Rams would widen the lead to 15 out of the break before Nazareth’s Brugler got on the board with two free throws and a quick inside bucket. After that, both offenses went silent for several minutes, as the Rams missed repeated opportunities to put the game on ice with an extended dry spell. But they continued to frustrate the Blue Eagles into errant, ill-advised shots and cause turnovers on the defensive end. Ultimately, the Rams would hold Nazareth scoreless for the final 4:31 of the quarter, but would add only a Sullivan free throw and a buzzer-beating Olivia Olsen putback to lead 30-16 through three quarters.

Allowing the Blue Eagles to hang around almost came back to bite SF, as Nazareth heated up from deep late. The team nearly tripled their game total, knocking down 10 shots from the field, including six three-pointers, to slowly but surely close the gap.

Meanwhile, the Rams withstood the late Blue Eagles rally despite being held without a field goal of their own in the final 7:11 of the contest. They were able to keep pace by knocking down 16 of 23 free throws in the fourth quarter. For the game, however, Spring-Ford was only 17-32 from the line, well short of Coach McDaniel’s goal.

“The goal, of course, is 100 percent,” he smiled, “but we work toward an 80 percent mark.”

“Our foul shooting could’ve been much better,” Lucy Olsen agreed, “but they did help us in the fourth quarter.”

While the game was never closer than the final four-point margin, it was hard not to see the opportunities the Rams had missed in the first few quarters to put the game away.

“Our intent was to take that halftime lead and open it up into a 20-plus-point lead,” admitted McDaniel. “But the way you do that is by making free throws, making shots to set up that pressure defense.

“This time of year, you’re happy to win regardless of the score. But yes, we felt we had command of the game and missed an opportunity to widen that lead.”

For the Blue Eagles, who end their campaign at 26-7, Brugler heated up after halftime to finish with 11 points on the evening.

“Honestly, this was a tough season,” said Nazareth coach Rich Bickler. “We had a number of injuries, so I’m proud that we overcame those and reached the state playoffs. Somebody’s got to lose — only one team can go home a winner in the end.”

Spring-Ford is one of the 16 teams who still enjoys that opportunity. It may not have been pretty, but this time of year, all that matters is playing another game.