A surprising defensive strategy by Bethel Park caught New Castle off guard in the championship game of the Bethel Park Holiday Tournament.

The Lady Black Hawks used a box-and-one defense to hold New Castle standout Kaylynn Waters to a season-low six points.

“Considering we both played yesterday (Wednesday), we were surprised they were prepared to play that (defense) with no practice time,” Lady ’Canes coach Jason Rankin said. “It worked well. They put a player on her and every time she caught the ball, they brought a few players at her.”

New Castle (4-3) was able to adapt to the funky defense at first, mainly from the efforts of Christina Talbert. She scored a game-high 25 points, but was the only New Castle player in double figures. Bethel Park (5-3) took control in the second and third quarters, outscoring the Lady ’Canes, 33-14.

“We hit some shots early, and we were actually up, 12-11, and I thought we could get them out of it because Kaylynn scored a few times on fast breaks,” Rankin said. “We were playing at our pace, but then we struggled a bit in the second quarter and they hit six straight shots in the third.

And once they got up six or nine points, we hung our heads and they started playing harder.”