As the girls’ basketball season progresses, Bethlehem Catholic coach Jose Medina wants his Golden Hawks to work on finishing what they’ve started after their 57-48 loss to Nazareth on Saturday at Becahi.

“I thought our girls did a good job coming out and doing things early on, but as the game moved along, you saw [Nazareth’s] experience and size begin to prevail,” Medina said.

After Becahi guard Kourtney Wilson scored the first points of the game on a putback, teammate Cici Hernandez followed up with a three pointer.

“I’ve been having a couple rough games, so once I put it up, I felt good once it went in,” Hernandez said. “We started talking more and trusting each other, knowing what our strengths were, pushing the ball, knowing where people were, protecting the ball, and being smart with the ball. We pushed the ball up way better than any other game, and as long as you’re trusting your teammates, the whole game flows way better.”

Hernandez made an outstanding crosscourt pass in the second quarter to Wilson who was inside and scored.

“She just gave me the look, and I was like, you better get this. I’m trusting you right now,” Hernandez said.

The Hawks led by as much as eight points in the second quarter before the Blue Eagles began to chip away at that lead halfway through, going up on Becahi 22-21 at the half.

“We talked about, let’s move the basketball. Let’s go from good to great in terms of passing selection,” Coach Medina said. “I thought they extended their defense a bit, and it gave us some problems. They started to get some deflections, tips, and with their length, you can’t give teams like that extra possessions.”

But the Blue Eagles went on a 12-point run early in the third quarter, a quarter that had belonged to the Hawks all last year.

Said Wilson, “Last year, the third quarter was always our quarter, so I wanted to keep the team up in energy so we could try and come back. There was a lot we learned, playing Easton, and our first game versus Nazareth. We know that we’re smaller, and Nazareth has bigger guards, so we had to be aggressive.”

Wilson made an impressive move in the third quarter, resulting in two points, as the ball came loose more than once before settling in to Wilson’s hands.

“I just kind of grabbed it out of the air. It was a Euro step into a reverse layup. I’ve done it a bunch of times,” Wilson said.

But turnovers continued in the fourth quarter in favor of Nazareth, and Becahi was unable to make that comeback Wilson and her teammates had hoped for.

“When we turn the ball over, we help them beat us, and now we have to do a better job of valuing the basketball,” said Medina. “We need to work on finishing what we start.”

Wilson was Becahi’s top scorer with 23 points.

This week, the Hawks will have hosted the Liberty Hurricanes on Tuesday before taking the short road trip to Liberty on Thursday. Becahi will host Freedom on Saturday.