Jewel Levy’s three pointer plus Kailey Turpening’s free throws to start the fourth quarter gave Freedom its first bit of breathing room in the Patriots’ 48-42 victory over Pocono Mountain West in the District XI Class 6A girls’ basketball semifinal last Tuesday at Catasauqua High School.

“I just needed to knock down that shot,” Levy said. “Someone was driving down the lane and they kicked it out and I knew that was our shot.”

Even though the Panthers had hoped to control Patriot senior Jennifer Kokolus inside, and even though it was Kokolus who scored all of the Patriots’ first quarter points on her way to 19 in total, the Pates couldn’t get any kind of comfortable lead until the fourth quarter.

“They’re a dangerous team,” said Freedom coach Dean Reiman, regarding Pocono Mountain West. “They play very free, so even there at the end, they will shoot 26-foot threes and be OK with it and fly around and get loose balls and play really hard and aggressive.”

Taliyah Malone’s three pointer for the Panthers in the third quarter preceded a turnover for PMW. As the ball rolled quickly down the court, it appeared to be headed out of bounds until Vataijah Darby beat Levy to it, scored and was fouled on the play.

“I thought in the first half, we did a pretty good job inside,” said Coach Reiman. “They got some easy looks when we lost focus with backside help in the second half and then, kind of when we helped there, they started making some threes so a lot of credit to them.”

With 2:10 remaining in the game, Kokolus intercepted a pass and Freedom guard Corrin Gill drove the wide open lane to score and converted two free throws shortly thereafter.

“The girl guarding Jenn had four fouls so we knew she wasn’t going to foul, so we took advantage of that and I took the layup when it was there,” Gill said. “I knew no matter whose hands the ball was in, we were going to knock down our free throws because we’re such a competent team on the line, especially Kailey Turpening.”

Both Turpening and teammate Brenna Ortwein had 11 points apiece and went to the line twice each in the final 90 seconds.

“We knew this team was really aggressive, so at practice we did a lot of rebound drills and boxing out,” said Levy. “We’ve always been the shorter team and have known we have to get our bodies into them and play taller than we actually are.”

Paige Knecht had nine points for the Panthers, all three pointers.

“I’m just so proud of these kids,” said Coach Reiman. “For three district finals in a row to be there, hopefully we get a different result than last year. They work so hard to be in this position.”