“We got lucky.  I told them in the locker room we got lucky to win that game.  I guess sometimes you win games you don’t deserve to win and today is one of those times,” Head Coach Jen Carangi said.

The North Penn Knights (10-4) beat the Gloucester Catholic Lady Rams (6-4) 51-50 in a Saturday afternoon game in the North Penn High School gymnasium.

The Knights came out of the gates strong.  Carley Adams found Val McGriff with a nice bounce pass through a defenders legs for a layup.  Then Alaina Mullaly knocked down a three on an assist from Alli Lindsay as the Knights went up 5-0.  The Lady Rams got on the board with 6:38 left in the first quarter thanks to a three from Lynzie Eggers.  The Knights took a 16-10 lead into the second quarter.

With 6:31 left in the first half, Adams went 2/2 at the free throw line to extend the Knights lead to double digits, 21-10.  Adams had a big first half, especially driving to the basket and finishing her layups.  She finished with 7 points in the first half.

“I think the game plan coming in was just to play basketball.  We knew that we needed this win, just for a confidence booster, so coming in we were really thinking a lot defensively and when our defense is good, our offense is good so I think it carried over,” the senior captain said.

However, the Lady Rams battled back as after a three from Ella Van Dine, it was one possession game with 2:38 left in the half.  Ali Johns responded on the other side with a three of her own to extend the Knights lead.  North Penn led at halftime 26-20.

The Knights got the lead back up to double digits as with 3:58 left in the third quarter, Lindsay blocked a shot from Mycala Carney, and then Lindsay converted the defense into offense on the other side.  The Knights took a 43-27 lead into the 4th quarter.

The Lady Rams came all the way back though.  They went on a 17-3 run capped off by a layup from Carney to bring the Lady Rams to within 2, 46-44, with about 55 seconds left.

“We, in the fourth quarter, just fell apart.  And to their credit, they just never quit, they continued coming,”  Carangi said on the Lady Rams comeback.

The Knights extended the lead to 47-44 with a made free throw from Adams.  Then Carney hit a clutch three-pointer to tie the game at 47 with 38.8 seconds left in the game.  The Lady Rams tried to capitalize on two missed free throws from Adams, but could not inbound the ball leading to a 5-second violation.  Gloucester Catholic’s head coach, Lisa Gedaka, pleaded her case that she called a timeout before the violation, and she ended up being called for a technical foul.  Mullaly went to the charity stripe and knocked down both free throws to give the Knights a 49-47 lead.  Then Lindsay went to the foul line with 18.7 left in the game and went 1/2 to extend the lead to 50-47.  This was followed by Mullaly making another free throw with 10.9 seconds left in the game to give the Knights a 4-point lead.

“As a team, we did not do well at all at free throws today and that would have really helped us finishing the game out at the end, but you have to take what you can get and at the end, those were the shots we needed and for me I didn’t want really want to think anything much of it and just walk up and shoot my shot,” Mullaly said after going 4/7 at the free throw line in the 4th quarter.

The game should have been on ice after that for the most part, but Eggers was fouled in the process of shooting a missed three-pointer and she went to the line and knocked down all three free throws to bring the game back to 51-50, with 4.7 left on the clock.  Val McGriff went to the charity stripe with 3.7 left in the game and missed both free throws.  The Lady Rams got the rebound and tried to pass the ball up court but could not get a shot up as the Knights took a narrow victory.

The Knights will be back in action on Thursday at home for a game with the CB East Patriots.  They lost to the Patriots earlier this season, 52-44.

“The good news is that Tuesday is our BYE, so we have a little bit of time, we’ll come back, we’ll practice, get a few good days of practice in, but we have CB East up next and we lost to them the first time around, so we need to be ready to play,” Carangi said.

Gloucester Catholic: N. Barrera 1 pt, Nugent 2 pts, A. Barrera 5 pts, Van Dine 8 pts, Eggers 16 pts, Carney 18 pts

North Penn: Doran 2 pts, Plaugher 2 pts, Plaza 2 pts, Strobel 2 pts, Johns 3 pts, Dunn 3 pts, Lindsay 6 pts, Mullaly 10 pts, Adams 10 pts, McGriff 11 pts