Freedom’s girls’ basketball team recovered quickly from trailing 12-4 halfway through the first quarter in the first round of PIAA State Class 6A playoffs and clinched a 50-45 victory over Souderton last Friday at Easton Area Middle School.

“I think our kids just wanted it more, and 50-50 plays in the second half... When they answered us in the third quarter and cut the lead to two, I don’t think we lost faith. We came down and executed and just ran our stuff,” said Freedom coach Dean Reiman.

Pat Freedom’s girls’ basketball team recovered quickly from trailing 12-4 halfway through the first quarter in the first round of PIAA State Class 6A playoffs and clinched a 50-45 victory over Souderton last Friday at Easton Area Middle School.

“I think our kids just wanted it more, and 50-50 plays in the second half ... When they answered us in the third quarter and cut the lead to two, I don’t think we lost faith. We came down and executed and just ran our stuff,” said Freedom coach Dean Reiman.

Patriot forward Jennifer Kokolus found her rhythm after the first few minutes, scoring seven points in the first quarter along with Kailey Turpening’s three pointer.

That set the stage for an 11-0 run by the Patriots when Souderton called a timeout with 4:45 left in the second quarter. By halftime, Freedom led the Indians, 27-18.

“Last game, we kind of came out like we had the game after halftime, and we knew we could not do that again, so we prepared for that,” said Freedom guard Corrin Gill, who made a sharp pass to Kokolus in the second quarter for two more points.

The Patriots were also prepared for the foul trouble that could have haunted Kokolus with four and Brenna Ortwein with three, but some adjustments on the floor safeguarded against that.

“[Coach Reiman] was saying to keep our composure and be aware of everything they could beat us on, like their big. Jen had four fouls, so we took that away and had Brenna guarding their big,” Gill said.

The Indians came out firing in the third quarter with back-to-back threes by Megan O’Donnell and Megan Walbrandt, and the game was back on.

“They’re a good shooting team, so we can’t expect them to miss, but we have to be ready for every miss,” said Ortwein. “I switched off of the girl that I was guarding, and I got on more of a post player, and if I could keep her inside and not let her get the ball it’s easier to not foul.”

Ironically, it was Ortwein who got fouled in the final 30 seconds when she rebounded a missed three by Souderton.

“It was pressure, but it was the good pressure that you know that on the back end it’s going to be a good night, and you’re going to get to go home and think about, ‘I wanted that ball at the end,’ and putting those foul shots in and shooting with confidence,” Ortwein said.

The Indians had another chance with a three-point attempt but missed with five seconds remaining and fouled Turpening who made both free throws.

“When that three-point shot goes up, it’s like it’s in the air for 10 seconds, but when she missed and when the time ran out, there was that feeling of everything you worked so hard for,” said Ortwein.

At crunchtime, it was the Patriot’s defense that made the strongest statement.

“That last minute, our defense had great awareness, we switched off every screen, and I think they tried to run three different sets there. We just had really good awareness to make them make a contested shot, and luckily for us, that one didn’t go in and we got the rebound,” Coach Reiman said.

On Tuesday, past Press deadlines, the Patriots will have played in the second round of states against Garnet Valley. riot forward Jennifer Kokolus found her rhythm after the first few minutes, scoring seven points in the first quarter along with Kailey Turpening’s three pointer.