“Too happy to even cry,” said Bethlehem Catholic guard Jaleesa Lanier after the Hawks were crowned PIAA State Class 4A girls’ basketball champions by defeating North Catholic, 60-49, on Saturday at the Giant Center in Hershey, Pa.

Screams and squeals filled the arena as time ran out in the state final and the Hawks’ emptied the bench to celebrate.

“It’s amazing to win this, especially when everyone doubted us, never thinking we would be here; but from day one, it was always our goal to be here, and I think it was amazing to go out with a bang,” said Becahi forward Briana Barnard.

The 27-4 Hawks, coached by Jose Medina, had taken on the 26-3 Trojanettes from western Pennsylvania, coached by Molly Rottmann.

“Ecstatic. It’s really unreal. There aren’t many words to describe it,” said Becahi center Abby Brown. “Tonight it will sink in, but right now it feels like a dream come true.”

The first score of the game did not come for three long minutes, a three pointer by North Catholic’s number-23, Tess Myers.

“I had to spend a lot of energy guarding number-23, Tess Myers, giving it all my effort,” said Barnard.

Ten seconds later, Becahi forward Kourtney Wilson responded with a three of her own, but it was the second quarter when the Hawks’ defense came through, beginning with a Lanier-forced turnover, a pass to Barnard, and a bucket from Wilson.

Lanier repeated with an interception at North Catholic’s end of the court and Wilson repeated with two points.

In the meantime, Brown had been called for two early fouls.

“Coming in and getting those two quick foul calls was a real struggle so I was really hoping I could play calm and composed despite the fact that I was already getting flustered because of the refs, but you can’t let the refs determine the game so I just blocked them out,” she said.

Brown, in fact, turned the tables and scored 13 points for the Hawks.

“I always work on those corner shots,” said Brown. “My coach makes me hit five in a row from each side, and that work really helped today.”

The Hawks took a 25-20 halftime lead into the locker room.

“Every game for the past couple weeks, they’ve been coming back, coming back, and we wanted to make sure they didn’t come back this time,” said Lanier.

And the Trojanettes never quite did.

“In the fourth quarter when we were getting deflections and steals and making a run on them, I knew it was ours,” said Barnard. “I couldn’t be more proud of my girls and the coaches and all the support that we’ve had.”

After a hard-fought, 20-point game by Myers, the junior guard fouled out with 1:21 remaining in the contest.

“We knew if we had our defense and kept pushing, our shots would fall. The ball will always find us,” said Lanier. “I’m so happy to put some respect on our name. It just feels so good.”

The state trophy and gold medals were awarded to Isabelle Rosario, Lanier, Keyara Walters, Barnard, Kamryn Williamson, Solei Rodriguez, Kelby McNally, Wilson, Cydney Stanton, Stephanie Donato, Oneviah Scott, Taliyah Medina, Brown, Yvonne Perez, Taliah Peterson, Julia Zambo, and coaches Medina, Arnold Alleyene, Dwight Repsher, Calvin Arrick and Mike McKelvey.