It’s called the Battle of the Hills for a reason.
When late December rolls around and it’s time for the annual game between cross-town rivals Pottsville and Nativity at Martz Hall, both the Crimson Tide and the Golden Girls come ready for a fight.
Tuesday, Pottsville won its second straight Battle of the Hills, 53-43.
The Golden Girls pulled within three points with two minutes to play before Crimson Tide junior guard Sadie Cresswell hit a 3-pointer and came away with a steal at the other end to secure the victory.
“We know coming in here that no matter what kind of season either team is having, it’s going to be a battle,” Cresswell said. “Hitting a 3 and a couple girls knocking down shots at the end helped calm us down. We get kind of anxious sometimes when it gets close.”
Pottsville (7-1) came in flying high off a 56-50 win over Minersville in the Gatorade Winter Classic championship Saturday.
Nativity (3-4) was expected by many to enter a rebuilding season having lost four starters from last year, when the Golden Girls already struggled with depth.
None of that mattered Tuesday night.
“There have been years where Nativity was much more powerful than us,” Pottsville coach Rick Wojciechowsky said. “And we weren’t even as good as Nativity is this year, but we were able to make this a game because it means so much to the two schools.
“We knew we were going to get a full head of steam from them. Our girls were mentally prepared for that and we weathered a couple storms.”
Pottsville opened the game with cold shooting, going 0-for-4 from the field in the first four minutes. The Tide, however, turned it around and finished the quarter on a 9-2 run to take a 12-4 advantage after the first eight minutes.
But Nativity’s biggest weapons were just warming up.
Junior guard Allison Warren hit two 3-pointers and went 4-for-6 from the free-throw line in the second quarter to bring the Golden Girls back within six points (24-18) at the half.
Warren finished with a game-high 23 points, 16 of which came in the middle quarters.
Nativity junior forward Jordyn Simons wreaked havoc on the Tide in the paint, pulling down a game-high 11 rebounds and scoring 13 points for the game’s only double-double.
“She’s been solid all year long, her rebounding for her size,” Nativity coach George Forney said of the 5-foot-7 Simons. “She has an awful lot of heart. There’s no quit in her. She’s always battling people that are much taller than her.”
Pottsville pulled away again in the middle of the third period thanks to a 12-point run that lasted 3 minutes, 43 seconds and elevated the Tide’s lead to 41-26.
Alyssa Kondrack started the run by putting back a rebound before Madison Sherakas drilled a 3. Cresswell and Ashley Purnell both had baskets before a 3 by Cresswell closed the run.
But the lead wasn’t safe. Warren sank a half-court shot at the buzzer to cut Pottsville’s lead to 41-31 headed into the final stanza.
Warren hit another 3 and assisted on a trey by Maddie Ulsh to get the Golden Girls within five points at the 2:30 mark. Simons put back a rebound 20 seconds later to cut the Tide lead to 46-43 before Cresswell’s fatal 3.
“We got down by double digits two or three times and we got back down,” Forney said. “To (Pottsville’s) credit, they converted on a couple opportunities and shot the ball well. Sadie (Cresswell) and Sherakas can really shoot. You give them an opening, it’s in the basket.
“I just told the kids I was proud of the effort they put out, because this is without a doubt one of the top two or three teams in the league that they just played on their floor, and we competed the whole game.”
When Pottsville needed to force turnovers, it got them. Nativity had seven turnovers in the first quarter and bookended the game with the seven in the fourth.
Defense has been a hot topic for the Crimson Tide this season and Tuesday provided a quality opportunity to put it to the test.
“We have a couple wrinkles that we’re giving and we have a couple more that we want to work on during the course of the season when we go into the second round (of the Schuylkill League schedule),” Wojciechowsky said. “We have some athletes on our team and we want to try to use them the best we can.
“So we’re hoping that gives us more of an aggressive approach on defense at times, and we did do that tonight.”
The last 10 years of the Battle of the Hills still belongs to Nativity, which won eight straight meetings from 2005 to 2012.
Game Summary
Battle of the Hills
At Martz Hall
NATIVITY (43) — Ulsh 1 0-2 3, Souchak 0 0-0 0, Simons 6 2-3 14, Warren 6 7-10 23, Strausser 1 0-0 3, McClure 0 0-0 0. Totals 14 9-15 43.
POTTSVILLE (53) — Sherakas 4 1-3 12, Eckley 0 0-0 0, Cresswell 9 0-0 22, Kondrack 1 3-6 5, Schenk 1 2-2 4, Purnell 2 1-1 5, Burnhauser 1 2-2 5, Connors 0 0-0 0, Comfort 0 0-0 0. Totals 18 9-14 53.
Nativity (3-4) 4 14 13 12 — 43
Pottsville (7-1) 12 12 17 12 — 53
3-point FGs: Ulsh, Warren 4, Strausser, Sherakas 3, Cresswell 4, Burnhauser
JV score: Pottsville 52-36