This evening, the girls’ basketball team moved within a win of clinching a share of the PSAA East Division title with 50-39 victory over Our Savior on Senior Night.

The Bears clipped the Pioneers 39-34 in the first match-up on Dec. 10, and tonight’s game was just as tight in the early going. Niamh Scanlon opened the scoring with a layup, which the Pioneers quickly matched. Two 3-pointers from Beth Felix and a Sarah Hull jumper left the Bears up 10-4, before the Pioneers ran off nine straight points to take a 13-10 lead. Our Savior had possession in the waning moments of the quarter when Caroline Maglione stole the ball in the backcourt, drew a shooting foul with 2.5 seconds left, and connected on both free throws to pull the Brook within 12-13 after one.

Bekah Detwiler opened the quarter with a layup to regain the lead before Nadia Hall took over for a stretch on both ends of the floor. The junior notched a steal, then scored a layup plus the foul, and followed with an offensive rebound and putback on the ensuing possession, leaving the Bears up 18-13. The Pioneers responded with a 7-2 run, interrupted only by a Detwiler layup, that left the teams knotted at 20-20. Another Detwiler layup gave the Brook a brief edge, but Our Savior drained a 3-pointer on the next possession to retake a 23-22 lead. Detwiler’s fourth layup of the quarter swung the momentum back to the Bears, but Our Savior hit a jumper with four seconds left to carry a 25-24 advantage into the half.

In the first match-up, the Bears and Pioneers went into the half tied at 20-20 before the Bears took control with a 14-5 third quarter. Tonight followed a similar script as the Bears wrested away the game’s momentum late in the third. Wura Obasanjo opened the second half with a block followed by an offensive rebound a layup to grab the lead back. The Bears would not trail from that point on. Liz Robbins and the Pioneers traded buckets to keep the margin at one before a Felix steal and layup pushed the lead out to 30-27. Our Savior immediately knotted the game with a 3-pointer to knot the game at 30-30 but, with the game perched on a knife’s edge, the Bears responded with a 13-2 run, spanning the third and fourth quarters, to finally break the game open.

Felix ignited the run with (what else?) a 3-pointer. Our Savior hit 1-of-2 free throws to pull back within two, but their best player picked up her fourth foul, forcing her to the bench and paving the way for the Bear run. Detwiler closed the quarter with a layup to give the Brook a 35-31 cushion heading into the fourth.

Detwiler started the final frame right where she left off with her sixth layup of the night before Our Savior chipped away with another free throw to pull within 37-32. With the outcome still in doubt, Felix put the game away by splashing her fourth and fifth 3-pointers of the evening to propel the Bears to their largest lead of the night at 43-32. The Pioneers would get no closer than nine the rest of the way. After an Our Savior bucket, Maglione drilled a baseline jumper to restore the 11-point advantage before yet another Detwiler layup pushed the Bear lead to 13 en route to the nine-point win.

Felix led the Bears with 17 points, including five 3-pointers, giving her 11 long balls against the Pioneers this year. Detwiler came off the bench to score 14 huge points while Hall (6), Maglione (4), Robbins (3), Scanlon (2), Hull (2), and Obasanjo (2) rounded out the scoring for the Brook.

With the win the Bears improve to 10-1 in the PSAA and remain tied atop the East Division standings with Portledge. A win over Kew-Forest on Wednesday (whom the Bears beat 56-17 on Jan. 7) will give them a share of the East Division crown and a #1 seed in the PSAA tournament (thanks to a coin toss won at last week’s PSAA winter meeting).

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