The biggest tests in school tend to be scheduled toward the end of the year and are rather difficult.

The PIAA 6A Semifinals certainly fit that category for Spring-Ford’s girls basketball team. Luckily for the Rams, they passed with flying colors.

Spring-Ford held off a strong rally from District 11’s Nazareth to earn a trip to Hershey in the state finals, ousting the Eagles in a 46-43 thriller at Ram Nation gymnasium Monday night.

Spring-Ford’s girls basketball team has looked absolutely dominant this season in compiling a 24-0 record. The Rams needed their best effort to get past the Eagles (17-2).

“We knew going into the game this was going to be one of the biggest tests of the season,” head coach Mickey McDaniel said. “We really felt the game could come down to the last possession, which it did. This is a group of young ladies who have risen to the challenge. When they get knocked down, they get right back up.”

Spring-Ford was led by senior Lucy Olsen once again as she was able to rack up a team-high 20 points, nine of them coming in the fourth quarter. Teammate Anna Azzara had eight points, Abbey Boyer tallied six points, and Emily Tiffan and Mac Pettinelli each added five points.

An overall team effort — offensively and defensively — led the Rams to victory.

“They were a really good team,” Olsen said. “In order to beat them we had to play as a team.”

Opposite from the District finale, the Rams came out firing on all cylinders while running out to a 13-3 lead halfway through the first quarter thanks to a pair of Azzara 3’s along with 3’s from Boyer and Tiffan, forcing the Nazareth coach to call an early timeout.

The timeout got the Blue Eagles back on track with two 3-pointers from Madeline Ahearn, who came up huge for Nazareth with a team-high 18 points. Nazareth found themselves trailing 16-9 at the end of the first.

Things slowed for the Rams in the second quarter as they were only able to tally nine points in the quarter, thanks to strong defensive play from Nazareth, and some unlucky bounces for Spring-Ford. As shots missed for Spring-Ford, the opposite was true for Nazareth. Ahearn continued to score from just about anywhere and her teammates were able to find the bottom of the basket as well.

Despite a late 3 from Ahearn, Pettineli would hit a buzzer beater 3 pointer of her own to give the Rams a narrow 25-23 lead headed into the half.

Coming out of the half, both teams would struggle to find consistent scoring due to the high defensive play from Spring-Ford and Nazareth, as both teams would score just 11 points each in the third quarter. 

Pettinelli was able to score her second buzzer beater of the game on a putback after a Tiffan miss, bringing the score to 36-34 heading into the final quarter of play. As the offenses continued to struggle, Spring-Ford was able to rely on their stingy, tough defense throughout the third.

In the fourth quarter Spring-Ford was able to waste almost half of the clock with their quick ball movement, and eventually forcing Nazareth to have to start fouling the Rams to try and get the ball back. 

Olsen took all but one of the free throws in the fourth quarter, making five of her eight attempts, Nazareth was able to get a huge 3 from Ahearn to bring the score within two points. 

Olsen improved the lead late to three points with nine seconds left with a free throw, and Spring-Ford used their fouls to waste time. Ram Nation Gymnasium got as loud as it has in over a calendar year as Olsen rejected a 3-point attempt from Kelly Leszcynski.

The Rams will now face North Allegheny (26-1) in the state championship match Friday at Hershey’s Giant Center at 5 p.m. This will be Spring-Ford’s first time making it to Hershey for the state finals since 2013, where they were able to take home the title.

The Tigers defeated Cumberland Valley in the other state semifinal by a score of 66-40 behind 24 points from Lizzy Groetsch.

This game will most definitely be Spring-Ford’s toughest test of the season thus far, but if Spring-Ford continues to stay hot from beyond the arc and can get themselves off to a quick start like Monday night they should have a great chance to play a close competitive game against the North Allegheny.