New Castle survived a scare to post a WPIAL Section 2-AAA win over Blackhawk.

The Lady ’Canes (3-0, 11-0) led 58-51 with 1:51 to play and the Lady Cougars battled back to 62-60 with 26 seconds to play. New Castle’s Christina Talbert missed the front-end of a one-and-one and teammate LaShauna Brothers secured the rebound. Brothers was fouled with five seconds to go.

Brothers split a pair of free throws, missing the second and Blackhawk (1-2, 6-4) snared the board and was immediately fouled. The Lady Cougars hit the first foul shot with two seconds to go, intentionally missed the second and Brothers corralled the game-clinching rebound.

“It was a good win for us and a good way to escape,” New Castle coach Jason Rankin said. “We overcame some things and we got it done with defense.

“I hope the girls learn from this game and move forward.”

Blackhawk led 44-36 in the third quarter before the Lady ’Canes used a 12-3 run to take the lead for good.

New Castle is ranked No. 1 in the WPIAL in Class AAA by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Kaylynn Waters recorded a game-high 18 points for the Lady ’Canes, while Talbert and Brothers contributed 13 apiece. Brothers also recorded 10 rebounds and four steals.

JaNia McPhatter tossed in 11 markers with eight boards for the winners.

Alexa Hayward registered 15 markers for the Lady Cougars.

New Castle returns to action at 12:30 p.m. tomorrow against Oakland Catholic at Geneva College in the Coaches vs. Cancer Hoop Fest. The Lady ’Canes will play again at 7:30 p.m. Monday when they travel to section rival Hopewell (2-0, 11-), which is ranked No. 2 in Class AAA.

“I’m kind of concerned with our fatigue factor,” Rankin said. “But, you have to be ready to play at any time.”