FOUNTAIN SPRINGS - Thursday night's Schuylkill League Division I matchup between North Schuylkill and Pine Grove wasn't just a basketball game - it was a war.
After leading by just two points at halftime, the Spartans pulled away in the second half to earn a 53-38 victory over the Cardinals.
"Every time North Schuylkill and Pine Grove get together, it's a war," Spartans coach John Rizzo said. "There's no other way to put it."
The war was nearly a stalemate at the intermission, with the Spartans leading 20-18. The Cardinals were forcing North Schuylkill into difficult shots and shutting down the paint.
"I told the team the whole time, if you keep a team like this close, things are going to change, the shots won't fall," Pine Grove coach Chris George said. "You could see in the first half there were airballs, there were missed shots. But once that lead pumped up, then their shooters are feeling good, relaxed, and the shots are falling. Then you take a two-point game or an eight-point game and it quickly goes to 15-plus."
North Schuylkill (11-2, 5-0 D-I) changed its attack in the locker room at halftime and saw instant results.
Instead of possessing the ball around the perimeter, the Spartans began invading the post and distancing the Cardinals (5-6, 2-2) with an 11-1 run in the first four minutes of the third quarter.
"If it wasn't for that run in the third quarter, it's a game at the end," George said.
Spartan junior Carly Gregas took over scoring inside, finishing with 11 points, all but two of which came in the second half. Senior Nadya Spotts added eight points, four in the third quarter.
"We weren't thrilled at halftime," Rizzo said. "We didn't execute as well as we wanted to in the first half. During halftime, we made some adjustments. We wanted to dump the ball inside more. We tried to create some opportunities for Carly Gregas and Nina Marone to touch the ball inside and they did a good job. Carly executed strong with the ball and our guards did a tremendous job of getting the ball to her."
It was North Schuylkill sophomore Tiffany Lapotsky, though, that did the majority of the Spartans' damage.
Finishing with 13 points, Lapotsky scored 10 points in the second half and drew the defensive responsibility of guarding Pine Grove senior guard Becky Evans, who still finished with a game-high 25 points.
"It was a great experience," Lapotsky said of guarding the area's leading scorer. "I played her last year and I just wanted to get back at her. She beat me good last year. I couldn't do it without my team, with all that help defensively."
The Spartans' defense was concentrated on containing Evans, but held the rest of the Cardinals to a combined 14 points.
"I thought we responded well," George said. "Becky knows what's coming at her. Every team is going to grab, kick, push and do everything they can to slow her down. She's a heck of a player. She's been seeing it for three years. For the most part, I thought she kept her cool.
"We're a young team, we're not a big team. So we can't really get into a knockout kind of game with a team like this that wants to bully you and push you underneath and get the ball inside. If you have a team like that, that's great. That's what you should do."
Evans recorded all but one of Pine Grove's 12 points in the fourth quarter. Her three-point play with 6:48 remaining sliced the North Schuylkill lead to 10 points at 39-29. Evans again cut the lead to 10 just over minute later.
With under three minutes to go, North Schuylkill used a minute-long possession that featured two offensive rebounds by Lapotsky and Lauren Damiter before Justine Paul, who finished with 11 points, put the Spartans up 48-36 with a bucket.
Two more field goals by Gregas and Lapotsky put the lead permanently out of reach.
"We came out of halftime fired up," Rizzo said, "and our kids showed that in the second half during that run."