Livermore leads Nazareth past Parkland

FROM THE MORNING CALL

When the Nazareth girls basketball team returned to the floor for the third quarter, it discovered its lead had shrunk from three points to two after a scoring error had been corrected.

The Blue Eagles wasted no time extending their advantage to a point where Parkland could not come back.

Erika Livermore scored 12 points during a third quarter in which Nazareth outscored the Trojans 14-2. She finished with 28 points to pace the Blue Eagles in their 44-33 Lehigh Valley Conference win Friday night.

Nazareth (13-3 overall, 8-2 LVC) stayed one game behind Northampton (14-2, 9-1), a 40-30 winner over Whitehall, in the LVC North Division race. Each team has four league games left.
» Get Ready For This Year's Football Championship Game! Click here to get the latest Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers merchandise!

Parkland (15-4, 8-3) dropped a half-game behind Nazareth for the league's one wild-card slot with three LVC games remaining on its schedule. The Trojans have dropped two straight games after ripping off a 12-game winning streak.

"The losses against Northampton and Central [Catholic] hurt us in the standings, and we came in with the mentality that we have to win out," Livermore said. "We just had to execute as a team. We did that tonight, so we're still in the mix of things."

Parkland could not handle Livermore's mix of post moves, putbacks and free throws Friday. She scored 23 points in the middle two quarters, and her 28 points were one off the season-high 29 she scored against Emmaus on Jan. 11.

Livermore finished 10-for-13 from the field, making nine straight shots at one point, and hit all eight of her free throws. She scored the Blue Eagles' final 12 points of the third quarter, helping them open a 41-27 edge.

She also grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds and collected four steals.

"We tried to spread the floor out better than we did last time [against Parkland, a 35-32 win]," Nazareth coach Rich Bickert said. "Last time we were kind of crunched in and we took the first shot. Tonight we were much more patient, especially the last four minutes there.

"Erika came up big. That's what we expect from her."

While Parkland could not slow Livermore, Nazareth's third-quarter defense stifled the Trojans. Parkland went 0-for-5 from the field and committed five turnovers in the third quarter. Two free throws from Jess Fritsche were all the Trojans managed in the period.

"We knew we had to make a run," Livermore said. "We tend to give other teams' runs, so we came out thinking, 'We are the ones that have to make a run to put this game away.' They were the ones that had to catch up. They were the ones that had to do more work."

Alissa Persichetti led Parkland with eight points. Jackie Oertner added six points for the Trojans, who appeared to tire in the second half after losing to Central Catholic on Thursday.

Parkland coach Wes Spence said weary legs were not an excuse.

"We didn't do the things we talked about doing tonight," Spence said. "That's something that as a coach, we've got to make sure we have them ready to do those things. We did not execute out on the floor on either end."

For Nazareth, Kim Owens complemented Livermore with six points and six assists. Caitlyn Gary added five points for the Blue Eagles.

While they are pleased to have a half-game lead in the wild-card race, they have a long road to the end of the regular season. The Blue Eagles have six games left, including four league games next week. That stretch ends with a matchup against nemesis Northampton on Friday.

"Easton's been playing pretty well, and they're going to come out fighting, I know that," Bickert said, looking ahead. "Allen, they're also on the [district] bubble, so they're not going to be pushovers. It's going to be tough next week."

http://www.mcall.com/sports/varsity/mc-basketball-girls-parkland-0204-20110204,0,2997255.story