NW girls turn back Wilson

When two good basketball teams square off against each other, often times the game turns into a chess match. Whichever team can make the most impactful adjustment mid-contest has a good chance at coming away with a victory.

That’s exactly what Northwestern Lehigh was able to do on Thursday night in an important Colonial League and District 11 matchup against Wilson. The Tigers defensive change-up midway through the third quarter to a Box-and-one on Warriors’ three-point assassin Ashly Errico was the checkmate move in this one, propelling Northwestern to a 60-53 win.

Fast forward to the six-minute mark in the third quarter, where Wilson captured its first lead of the game since leading 2-0. Trailing by two at the half, the Warriors went on a 5-2 run to take the lead (34-33) with an Errico triple. It was Errico’s fourth three-pointer of the game, helping her to score 15 of her game-high 19 points through two-and-a-half quarters.

“Our girls did a good job of never giving up throughout the game,” said Wilson head coach Sandrine Gutierrez. “We’re getting better at having that mentality of handling a run from the other team and then going on a run of our own, but we need to get better at maintaining a lead when we go on our runs, that’s something we struggle with at times, we can’t get comfortable.

“The switch they made defensively kind of threw us for a little loop, but we need to be ready for those type of situations. When one player gets taken out of the game, as a team we need to step up, move the ball and pick up the scoring burden.”

About two minutes later in the third with the Warriors holding a two-point lead (38-36), Tigers’ coach Chris Deutsch called a timeout and made the game-changing decision to go to a Box-and-one on Errico.

The result was a 13-0 run from Northwestern, giving it an 11-point lead (49-38) with 6:48 remaining in the fourth quarter. The Tigers’ (15-3) improved defensive effort, along with a gutsy offensive effort from point guard Sydney Sevrain, aided the game-deciding run.

Sevrain scored seven points during that span on three consecutive possessions to steal the momentum from the Warriors (10-7).

“I have to give credit to our girls because they executed the adjustment we made really well. We don’t run a box and one much, but we do practice it in case we need it and they did a great job on the execution, that really jump started us,” said Deutsch. “From that point on, we didn’t let them get going too much.

“Sevrain really stepped up for us, too, during that stretch. In pressure time you want to be able to put the ball in your leaders’ hands, and she came through. She came into that timeout and she said ‘we’re not going to lose this game.’ Her confidence in herself and the team was big tonight.”

Wilson did continue to fight back throughout the fourth even after the Tigers big run. The Warriors closed within five at the one-minute mark, and then again closed within five with 30 seconds remaining, but they could never mount a serious offensive charge.

LEADERS... The twin towers in the post in Sage Christopher (16) and Emily Sekerak (15) combined for 31 points. Sevrain’s strong finish helped her collect 16. Errico led the Warriors with 19.

ICE COLD... After the Tigers went to a Box-and-one defense, Wilson missed its next 14 shots.

WILSON

Gillen 1-3-8-5, Errico 5-5-7-19, Miller 1-0-0-2, Goodman 6-2-3-15, Crozier 1-0-0-2, Reidinger 3-2-2-10. TOTALS: 17-12-20-53.

NW LEHIGH

Motolese 1-0-0-2, Lister 0-1-2-1, Jones 1-0-1-2, Ledeboer 2-0-0-4, Sevrain 6-3-5-16, Hess 2-0-0-4, Sekerak 5-5-5-15, Christopher 7-2-5-16. TOTALS: 24-11-18-60.

Wilson 13 16 9 15 - 53

Northwestern 18 13 13 16 - 60

Three-pointers: Wilson - Errico 4, Reidinger 2, Goodman 1; Northwestern - Sevrain 1.