Knights late comeback beats rival Crusaders
Sophomore Alli Lindsay is defended by Maile Erwin. Lindsay had 24 points.
TOWAMENCIN- Emotions are always a little higher than usual in rivalry matchups and it propelled the Knight to a 4th quarter comeback and took down the Crusaders.
“I laugh because when we were coming in, we were doing our game planning and scouting and the girls knew more than we did. We had all the stuff from watching film but they know all these kids. They play with them, they play against them so yeah, I definitely think it’s a good win for them [to get] bragging rights,” Head Coach Jen Carangi said.
The North Penn Knights (7-9) beat the Lansdale Catholic Crusaders (11-7) 55-52 in a Wednesday night matchup at the North Penn gymnasium.
Early in the first quarter, both teams battled to establish a lead and with 4:40 left in the 1st quarter, junior Valerie McGriff made two free throws to tie the game at 7. Emily Smith made her three-pointer and the Crusaders had a 10-7 lead. The Knights did retake the lead from an Adams three-pointer and an Adams offensive rebound that led to a layup. The Knights had a 14-13 lead at the end of the 1st quarter. However, the Crusaders built a 5-point lead by the end of the half. Smith had a big part of building that lead as she had back-to-back three-pointers for the Crusaders.
The Crusaders still barely held on to their lead and had a 38-34 advantage into the final quarter. But the Knights battled all the way to the end and their comeback was capped off by a three-pointer from sophomore Alli Lindsay, assisted by sophomore Laynie Doran. Lindsay described the chemistry she had with her fellow sophomore.
“Me and Laynie are both sophomores and we’ve played against each other in middle school and now in high school we’re playing together as one and our chemistry is amazing because we have classes together, we see each other all the time. We’re really close friends and I feel like our chemistry off the court and on the court, is extremely important for the game,” Lindsay said.
The Knights went 7/8 from the free throw line after that and Adams put the finishing touches on the game as she went 2/2 at her trip to the stripe with 4.9 seconds left to extend the lead to three.
“I really think we needed a win tonight to boost our confidence and really have us ready to push through the rest of our season and get into the playoffs,” Adams said.
The Knights will be back in action Friday as they will be at CB East for a date with the Patriots.
“This is a big week for us. We have two more games this week so if we can get two more wins that would be huge for us,” Coach Carangi said.
North Penn: Lindsay 24 pts, Adams 13 pts, Doran 7 pts, Mullaly 7 pts, McGriff 4 pts
Lansdale Catholic: Smith 15 pts, Erwin 11 pts, Lewis-Eutsey 9 pts, Devitis 8 pts, Rosenberger 5 pts, Finkelson 4 pts
