The Whitehall Zephyrs held off the Freedom Patriots long enough to earn a 33-32 victory on Tuesday night at Whitehall.

“We had really good teamwork tonight. I got cuts and Ella (Laky) would pass me the ball,” said Zephyr junior Ciara Rogers, who had a game-high 12 points. “We’ve been in a lot of situations where we got close and we didn’t end up winning in the end, so being able to pull through tonight felt good.”

Momentary concern fell over Zephyr fans when Patriot guard Kailey Turpening hit two three pointers in the final 35 seconds. Then, with 3.3 seconds left, Zephyr guard Bella Fonzone held the inbound ball, forcing a jump ball, and possession belonged to Whitehall.

“They were grabbing me and everything, and I would say it was a foul, but before the timeout, we got told to hold the ball because in a game previous, we got the ball and passed it, so that was a lesson,” Fonzone said.

That left .8 seconds on the clock, and with the ball in Fonzone’s hands again, time ran out as the Pates attempted to foul.

“Number one, we had to get the ball inbounds and the only way you do that is to execute really well because they’re gonna go for the steal, and if they don’t get the steal, they’re gonna get the foul,” said Whitehall coach Will Robertson. “[Our girls] knew that if anything was gonna happen, they didn’t have to panic or force anything. We told them, just call timeout, so I think that helped settle them down, but they executed really well, and then they made their foul shots at the end.”

Fonzone was 3-for-4, and Laky was 1-for-2 from the line at game’s end.

Whitehall led 9-2 early in the second quarter, but Freedom made up for lost time and scored seven straight points by Jordan MacIllroy, Julia Heinemann, and Keturah Stewart.

Turpening and Fonzone traded threes while Rogers had a putback for two and was later fouled at the halftime buzzer, sinking one free throw and putting the Zephs ahead, 17-16.

Freedom senior Natalie Stannard drained two threes in the third quarter, and MJ Dunbar hit a three pointer, while another putback by Rogers held Whitehall’s lead, 26-24, heading into the fourth quarter.

“Overall, we played great defense,” Coach Robertson said. “Freedom’s a very good perimeter-oriented shooting team, and our kids closed out, and more importantly, talked on defense. That’s growth for us.”