The last time Bethlehem Catholic’s girls basketball team faced Easton, the Red Rovers almost lost their undefeated status, but on Monday night, the Rovers held on to that title with a 47-34 victory over the Golden Hawks in an Eastern Pennsylvania Conference semifinal at Allentown’s PPL Center.

“We were missing baskets and put ourselves in a hole while I thought we were playing great defense,” said Becahi coach Jose Medina, “but we’ve got to finish the possession, and they got a couple key offensive rebound putbacks there, and at halftime, that was the difference.”

While the game was not out of reach for the Hawks at times, it didn’t help that shots wouldn’t fall and that Becahi forward Kendra Rigo was on the bench with two fouls.

“That can’t happen in a big game,” Medina said. “Our girls know better. We can’t afford that.”

The Hawks are no strangers to the EPC Tournament, having won it five times in the last five years.

“At the end of the day, we lost, and we’ve got to get better. I’ve got to coach better and find us ways to get baskets,” said Medina. “We started out 1 for 17, 1 for 18. We’ve got to be better than that.”

Becahi’s first points were two free throws seven minutes into the first quarter while Easton maintained a steady pace of 3-pointers throughout the first half.

“I thought (Evalyse) Cole did a great job establishing the tempo early,” Medina said of the Easton forward. “That’s what D1 kids do, and she came up big tonight. They would get a timely rebound, a big shot, and for us, we’re not built that way. We’ve got to win possessions and scrap, and the difference early on was Cole, and she played hard.”

Becahi guard Cici Hernandez had a game-high 17 points for Becahi, determined to keep the Hawks in the game.

“Their size started to get to us, but our girls, they fought,” said Medina. “I’ll give them credit.”

Easton will play Allentown Central Catholic in the EPC final at 6 p.m. on Thursday at the PPL Center.