One month ago, Bethlehem Catholic’s girls basketball coach Arnold Alleyne was looking forward to a second meeting with Easton after the Golden Hawks lost to the Red Rovers, 49-34.

But one month later and with the Hawks at full strength, did Coach Alleyne think Easton would be as big a challenge as they were on Jan. 9?

“I was hoping not, but defensively, we had to make the adjustments, so now I know, moving forward,” he said.

Those adjustments led the Hawks to a hard-fought 43-35 victory over the Red Rovers on Feb. 2 at Easton.

Becahi kept a modest lead throughout most of the first half until the 1:57 mark when Easton went on a 13-0 run to go ahead, 23-15, at halftime.

The Hawks decided to forego a break in the locker room while Becahi assistant coach Phil Williams and Alleyne had an animated discussion with their team.

“We were talking about making some adjustments because man-to-man, they were giving us a hard time, so in the second half, we were able to defend better,” said Alleyne. “We told the girls to keep them in front of us. Instead of playing man, we went zone because they were driving and getting to the foul line. They got multiple and-ones, so we said, let’s stop that.”

Halfway through the third quarter, the Hawks were back on top as Brooklyn Lewis made a nice move to the hoop for a 28-26 lead.

Early in the fourth quarter, the teams traded buckets before Becahi’s Aliyah Brame drained a 3-pointer, and Easton called a full timeout, only to have Brame score two more points when play resumed.

“That was huge,” said Brame. “We were smart enough to read their adjustment and go from there. That was a big confidence boost for us. This has been a rivalry since my freshman year, so to be able to play here one last time, it’s an amazing feeling to get a win here.”

Leading 37-31, Becahi had possession with 1:20 left in regulation and ran down the clock to :48.9, so that all Easton could do was foul.

Of note was that the Hawks shut out the Red Rovers’ 3-ball shooter Nat Amato.

“That’s great. Absolutely (the plan),” said Coach Alleyne, who hadn’t realized the shut out. “Amato is very tough, (Gabby) Wismer was killing us on the drive, [Elena Brunetti] was killing us on the drive, so after our adjustments were made, we were able to go on a run.”