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A 17-point game by sophomore Joanne McNamara helped key a 46-14 win for the North Penn-Mansfield Lady Tigers over their rivals, the North Penn-Liberty Lady Mounties, on Thursday, January 25.

While Thursday’s game was a home game for Mansfield, the game was played on the neutral court of the old Blossburg High School, a.k.a. “The Pit”.

For Tigers’ head coach Nate McNamara, Thursday’s game was a special one as he spent his formative years both playing and coaching the North Penn boys basketball team.

“This is my home. I grew up here, played here, and coached here for many, many years. I’ve had a lot of practices on this hardwood so it’s special to me and it’s special to the girls. We’ve practiced here with travel ball, we practice here other times, and these girls looked forward to this game. Vice versa, Liberty has girls that have grown up in this elementary program that have always wanted to play on this floor too, so it was great for both teams.”

From the opening tip the Lady Tigers were in control. After an early basket Mansfield’s smothering defense, led by McNamara, caused numerous Mountie turnovers that led to an 11-4 first quarter lead for Mansfield. The Lady Tigers kept up the intensity in the second as they went on an 11-2 run to take a 22-6 lead at halftime.

“Defense is not my worry, we’ve played very well defensively” continued McNamara. “They’ve turned it up, not that we’ve really changed it or altered it much, we’ve just really bared down and said ‘we need to play defense’ all the time, every minute, and they’ve taken that to heart.”

The second quarter really saw the Tigers run away with the game. Over the final 16 minutes the Lady Tigers outscored the Lady Mounties 24-8 and shutout Liberty in the fourth quarter.

McNamara’s 17 led all scorers, and she also added 8 steals and 7 rebounds. Jaime Palmer finished with 8 for Mansfield, Jeanette Montefusco scored 7, Hannah Bowens added 5, Alyssa Smith scored 4, Alaina McKee finished with 3, and Shae Berguson rounded out the scoring with 2.

McKenzie Bogaczyk led Liberty with 8 points while Alyssa Remley, Emma Williams, and Taylor Thompson all added 2 points each.

The win improves the Lady Tigers’ record to 7-7 and keeps them 3rd overall in the NTL Small School Division standings (5-4), a game and a half back of Northeast Bradford, as they look to try and position themselves for the NTL Showdown and District IV playoffs.

“I don’t talk playoffs until playoffs occur. That’s something that if it happens it happens and if it doesn’t it doesn’t,” concluded McNamara. “We’re going to prepare tomorrow for Cowanesque Valley on Saturday night. They came off a big win against Sayre but I think we’re a different team from when we played earlier and I’m glad it’s at home.”