Bethlehem Catholic was crowned District XI Class 5A girls basketball champions after winning the district final against Bangor, 61-16, on March 1 at Easton Area Middle School.

“We’re grateful to be able to be here but one thing about it, this is one step toward our next goal,” said Bethlehem Catholic coach Arnold Alleyne. “I’m proud of the girls for getting the district title, and now we have the next phase. We’ve gotta get film, we’ve got to start making a lot of friends, calling around. So we’re excited about that.”

Becahi freshmen Palin Coleman and Tess Tryanski were the game’s top scorers with 13 points and 12 points, respectively.

“This was a chance, more so for the younger girls, so they know,” said Becahi senior Mekhyla Britt. “As we leave, we want to keep the history going. When we were freshmen, the seniors got us here and got us this medal, so we wanted to do the same for the younger ones.

“We’re trying to continue with what we have going on. It’s definitely gonna be more rigorous. We’re gonna be training more, but hopefully bring everything that we brought here, our shots and our energy. We hope to ride it all the way to Hershey.”

Coach Alleyne emptied his bench in the mercy rule final on Saturday.

“We were definitely planning to win the game,” said Becahi senior Daviana Jones. “We knew what shots we wanted to take, and we knew what we wanted to do defensively. In the end, we worked as a team to try to reach this goal.

“You have to give [Bangor] props. Every team we play is a good team. There’s never a bad team. It’s just that we worked on everything we wanted to put out on the floor, and that’s how we got the win.

We’re a good shooting team and a good defensive team, but we want everybody to know us as an all-around team.”

Bethlehem Catholic’s district semifinal also ended in mercy rule as the Hawks defeated Pottsville, 53-28, on Feb. 26 at Executive Education.

In her second game since being sidelined with a foot injury, Becahi’s Aliyah Brame had the hot hand against the Tide with 20 points, including six 3-pointers.

“If someone does have the hot hand, we’re feeding them all night. I’m just happy they did that to me tonight,” Brame said. “Regular season’s one thing, but postseason is a different atmosphere, and extending the time with our teammates is a big thing. We come in knowing this could be our last game, so we have to prepare like we’re playing a state champion. We have to prepare like we could lose.

I know we had at least 12 fouls at half. I know I’m not satisfied, and as a team, we’re not satisfied with that.”

The Golden Hawks will enter the PIAA Class 5A state tournament on March 8 when they will host West Chester Rustin.

“Once we play together, I think we’ll have a lot of great opportunities,” said Coach Alleyne. “We have scoring from multiple players, and we have different options, so I think togetherness is going to be our strength.”