H.S. GIRLS BASKETBALL: Blue Mountain rallies behind Peel to reach District 11 4A title game
· Yahoo Sports
POTTSVILLE — It’s often said that confidence is the closest thing one could have to a superpower. But confidence isn’t gifted, it’s earned. For the Blue Mountain Lady Eagles, their confidence has never been higher.
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On Wednesday evening at Martz Hall in Pottsville, the Lady Eagles picked up their third District 11 Class 4A playoff win. After defeating No. 9 Palmerton last Tuesday 39-36, Blue Mountain knocked off No. 1 seed Lehighton over the weekend 49-34, and on Wednesday defeated Schuylkill League rival North Schuylkill, 44-37.
“I think a lot of it is that it takes one game to show you can do it,” Blue Mountain coach Rose Carper said after the Eagles’ latest win. “It takes taking down the number one seed, saying, okay, this might be something now.”
“You keep building that confidence,” she continued.”It takes a familiar opponent in North Schuylkill that we’ve seen before. And they’re just really competitive kids that just play hard every night.”
The Lady Eagles’ confidence on Wednesday evening was evident from the start, coming out of the gates aggressively in search of their second straight upset. Before North Schuylkill was able to blink, Blue Mountain found itself ahead by two-scores thanks to back-to-back three points from Mila Fleagle and Hailey Place.
Place and Fleagle led the Eagles throughout the evening. Place scoring 18 points in the win, Fleagle contributed 10 of her own, while Karley Koch, Delaney Walborn, Callie Peel, and Kelly Canfield all found their way into the scorebook.
The Eagles saw Peel tack on a pair of points at the rim a few minutes later and led 8-3 with under three minutes to go in the first frame.
In their first test of adversity of the evening, the Eagles found themselves in strong positioning against the Spartans, leading 12-5 entering the final 30 seconds of the quarter.
But Spartans’ star senior Mya Conti had other plans. The 2024-25 Schuylkill League Co-Player of the Year scored seven points in the final 30 seconds, including a three-pointer at the buzzer to tie the game at 12-12 heading into the second quarter. Two Blue Mountain turnovers contributed to the strong finish of the quarter for the Spartans; the Eagles, in total, had 14 first-half turnovers to North Schuylkill’s six.
Earlier this season, it may have been a run that would derail the Lady Eagles. But not on Wednesday night.
Instead, the Eagles would once again throw the first punch in the second quarter. This time, using back-to-back baskets from Hailey Place and Callie Peel, regaining a 16-12 advantage.
The Spartans responded once again from the early run from Blue Mountain, scoring five of the next seven points to take a 17-16 lead and grinded their way to a 23-20 advantage with under two minutes to go.
But again, adversity would strike the Eagles. This time in a major way, and ultimately proving to be the turning point in Wednesday night’s semifinal.
With 1:30 seconds remaining in the first half, Blue Mountain’s key contributor, Callie Peel, suffered an injury that would require the junior to miss the remainder of the game. Neither team scored following the injury, sending the game into intermission with North Schuylkill ahead 23-20.
“Callie going down was huge,” Carper remarked about her team’s response to the injury. “As a team, you go one of two ways. You can kind of be sad about it and just kind of lose your composure, or you can say, hey, let’s go out and get this win for her. And not just for her, but it’s for the whole team.”
“So I told them at halftime, play with heart,” she continued. “That’s all you have to do. Go out there, do everything that you can do to get this win.”
Carper’s Lady Eagles did just that in the second half. Now, without one of their top players, the Eagles came out firing in the third quarter, starting the second half with an 8-0 run with Mila Fleagle and Hailie Place scoring four points each. The run not only put Blue Mountain ahead, but it was a lead that the Eagles would never relinquish the rest of the evening.
North Schuylkill looked to scrap their way back to even footing with Blue Mountain, but despite their best efforts were never able to do so, a 30-29 deficit at the end of the third quarter being the closest they would get following an Addisyn Balicki three-pointer.
After watching North Schuylkill score six of the last eight points in the third quarter, the Eagles looked to put the game away early in the fourth quarter. As they did through the first three frames, they struck first in the fourth quarter.
Over the opening three minutes, Blue Mountain put together a 6-0 run to take a 36-29 lead. Their lead would grow to as large as nine points with 3:24 remaining. North Schuylkill was able to narrow the deficit down to five at 40-35 with 1:44 remaining, but the Eagles were able to ice the game in the final minute at the free-throw line to win 43-37.
Carper credits her team’s non-league schedule for helping prepare them for not just playoff games but the adversity they’ll face throughout them.
“I’ve been saying all year our non-league schedule prepares us for these games,” she said. “We play some really, really tough games. So people can look at our record, and we’re playing Governor Mifflin. We’re playing Emmaus. We’re playing Middletown, who’s still undefeated. Some years that can, you know, take your confidence away, and some years can build your confidence and make you better. This year it’s making us better.”
It’s safe to say the Eagles are playing with plenty of confidence now, with three-straight postseason wins and four straight dating back to the end of the regular season, their new season-long winning streak.
Blue Mountain will look to keep its confident play rolling on Saturday afternoon in the District 11 4A finals. Awaiting the Eagles will be another Cinderella story, No.7 Allentown Central Catholic. The Vikings defeated No. 2 Northwestern Lehigh 46-42 and No. 3 Palmerton 55-37 to clinch their spot in the district championship game.