As the Golden Hawks forge their path to a state championship, an enlarged chart of the 2026 PIAA 5A girls basketball brackets hangs inside Bethlehem Catholic’s gym.

“It’s something I thought the team should do,” said Bethlehem Catholic coach Arnold Alleyne. “It’s cool to be able to track what’s going on with the team.”

After winning a first-round contest, 52-19, against Bishop Shanahan (Downingtown) on March 7, the Hawks proudly entered their name on the second-round bracket.

“After the game when I was on the bench, I was looking at it, and I was like, I can’t wait to move it up. I was really excited,” said Becahi senior Brooklyn Lewis (9 points). “We’re all excited. We all can’t wait. For our seniors, too, we want to take it all the way.”

The mercy rule game, which kicked in with 25 seconds left in the third quarter, was a quick start to a long road.

“We just knew we needed to shut them down, rebound, and run the floor and play defense,” said Lewis.

“It was only easier because we all played as a team. We don’t play the score. We play how we play.”

The Hawks held the Eagles to eight points at the half and led by 29.

“I love the way we played defensively,” said Coach Alleyne. “I feel like we’re peaking at the right time, so I think we’re gonna be able to make a good run if we stay consistent and play team basketball. We have to be able to do better at what we do already.”

Leah Ault led Becahi with 17 points.

Bishop Shanahan’s Carmel Ambrose had a team-high 11 points.

The Hawks will meet Villa Maria (Malvern) in the second round on March 11 at Norristown High School.

“We’ll see what they’re good at and how we can adjust our previous sets, so if they press us or have a different style of game, we’ll have to adjust, but that’s the fun thing about playing in states,” said Coach Alleyne. “We don’t know what this team does, we’ve gotta figure out what they do well and how we can adjust and see who their best players are.”