Freedom was tied 22-22 with Bethlehem Catholic at halftime last Friday night at Becahi when Patriot coach Dean Reiman told his girls to think of it as their first district playoff game.

“Even though it wasn’t, we wanted to get pumped up for districts,” said Freedom forward Jewel Levy. “We’re getting back into our groove. We’re getting back at it.”

Freedom emerged with the 56-42 victory, which concluded regular season play for both teams.

“We talked about being tough because that’s the name we want to make for ourselves,” said Freedom center/forward Zara Martin. “I could tell everybody, even people on the bench, really wanted to win this game. Defense powered us through.”

One of the Patriots’ main focuses was to lock down Becahi guard Kourtney Wilson, who had six points, while capitalizing on a lead which they began to do after taking some time off the clock midway through the third quarter.

“We were trying to slow things down, but we wanted to keep our momentum as well,” said Levy, who knocked down a three on the play.

“We wanted to get the best shot, so I think my three at the end of that was a catalyst for us,” she said. “It was great. It was in and out for a minute, but it went in.”

Freedom forward Kailey Turpening scored on a layup after intercepting an inbounded ball by Becahi, and Patriot guard Brenna Ortwein hit a three right before the buzzer to make the score 39-28.

“I have to say, there’s something to be said with teams that came into this year with continuity. Freedom lost one, and we lost 10...You look at Nazareth, five seniors,” said Becahi coach Jose Medina. “During a time when all this craziness is going on, we have six freshman, three sophomores, so there’s something to be said when you have seniors that start that came back and have that jump this time of year. That being said, you gotta’ tip your hat sometimes, and today, they executed much better than we did. We’re young, but we’ve just got to keep fighting and see what we’re made of.”

One of those young players is Becahi freshman guard Cici Hernandez who had a team-high 16 points, including four three pointers.

Ortwein was the top scorer for the Pates with 17 points.

Both teams will enter the District XI tournament this week with Freedom taking on Liberty and Becahi taking on East Stroudsburg North.