Bethlehem Catholic’s girls’ basketball team was the first to end the stand off by doing exactly that, standing off, in the Hawks’ 47-38 victory over Jim Thorpe in the District XI Class 4A final last Saturday at Freedom High School where they were crowned district champions.

“After killing about a minute, that’s when I felt a little reassured we had this,” said Becahi center Abby Brown.

The Hawks’ first lead since the first quarter against the Olympians came with 3:20 left in the third quarter when Isabelle Rosario intercepted a pass and scored on a lay up.

With the score in Becahi’s favor, 31-29, to start the fourth quarter, Kourtney Wilson made two free throws, Jim Thorpe’s Leila Hurley hit a three, Brown hit a three, and Wilson sank two more free throws.

“A five-point lead is not a big lead but after the momentum shift, that three, we were able to kill off a minute, a minute thirty, and anytime you can do that you feel really good and you want that clock to run down,” said Brown. “They had us going crazy.”

Becahi took enough time off the clock that Jim Thorpe was forced to foul the rest of the game.

“They came out wanting it. Their bigs, their number 20 (Hurley), their defense ... We worked on more new plays, and credit to them, a lot of them still didn’t work,” Brown said. “They came out harder than we did, but when we were able to slow it down and calm down, that’s when the tide turned in the game.”

Jim Thorpe, coached by Rob Kovac, was undefeated with a record of 26-0 coming into the district final.

“They came as advertised. We knew we were going to have our hands full, but these girls have been resilient all year, they hung in there all year, and credit to them for what they did,” said Becahi coach Jose Medina. “I’m just so proud of these guys.”