Although Bethlehem Catholic's girls basketball team was twice stung by Scranton Prep in less than a year, Becahi coach Jose Medina was pleased to see the Hawks trending in the right direction against the Cavaliers on Saturday at the Yasso-Rothrock Christmas City Classic at Liberty High School.

"The first time, we lost by 21. This time, we were down by nine at halftime. We're trending in the right direction. We were down by five in the third quarter. Trending. Then down by two. Trending," Medina said, after the Hawks 54-52 loss to the Cavaliers.

Debuting as Becahi's head varsity basketball coach, Medina had only a week or so of preparation with the team after coach Megan Dellegrotti resigned.

"We hit the floor running. I came into a great situation with great leadership on the senior level. We picked up where things left off," he said.

Medina stressed three things: reset, regroup, and refocus.

"They bought in and worked hard every day at practice," said Medina.

Prior to his job offer at Bethlehem Catholic, Medina was gearing up for the start of basketball season at Emmaus High School where he was an assistant coach, when a phone call from Becahi athletic director, Chris Domyan, had Medina curious, to say the least.

"He called me on Monday night while I was cleaning my mother's basement," Medina laughed. "He asked me if I could meet with him, but he didn't say what it was about."

During his meeting with Domyan, in which he was offered the head coaching job, Medina said he had been knocking on the door a long time, and that he was ready.

"I'm trained to be ready, and now the good Lord gave me this opportunity," said Medina.

On Saturday afternoon, the whole team was ready to face Scranton Prep, when Becahi senior forward, Maggie Melhem, and senior forward, Kalista Walters, combined for the first five points of the game. Later in the first quarter, however, the Cavaliers scored eight straight points on three turnovers.

One particular challenge for the Hawks was Scranton Prep's senior guard, Madison Ashby, who was the Cavaliers top scorer and who played with equal intensity on defense.

Melhem said, "She's a good shooter. We had to look out for her, and we had to look out for Jess Genco."

Down 37-28 at the half, the Hawks were determined to come back.

"We talked about overcoming a lot of our battles and trying to step up," said Melhem.

After the Hawks called a timeout halfway through the third quarter, Melhem, Walters, and Jordyn Jones narrowed the gap by a score of 44-39 heading into the fourth quarter.

Scranton Prep scored six straight points, when Becahi began to push harder, and it was Walters who eventually tied the game on a Cavalier turnover with 30 seconds left in the game.

Melhem said, "Our last timeout, we drew up a play, but it was hard to execute. At the end, we just tried to put everything out there."

Walters was named player of the game for Becahi, and Ashby was player of the game for Scranton Prep.

"It wasn't about winning the MVP for me, but after adversity, coming back as a team. We all wanted to come back," Walters said.

Also scoring for Becahi were Nicole Lacherza, Tessa Zamolyi, and Nia Mims.

Coach Medina said, "We'll take it to heart and learn from our mistakes. That includes me too. Maybe I need to put them in a better situation [to win the game]. We'll take the positives and learn to get better. We're all learning."