The New Castle High girls basketball team kept pace with Hopewell last night.

Kaylynn Waters netted a game-high 19 points to lift the Lady ’Canes to a 68-49 WPIAL Section 2-AAA win over Ambridge at the Ne-Ca-Hi Field House.

Waters was 7 of 14 from the field with five rebounds.

“Kaylynn played well,” New Castle coach Jason Rankin said. “She handled the ball well and she’s been playing strong for us.”

The Lady ’Canes (5-1 section, 14-2 overall) are ranked No. 2 in the WPIAL in Class AAA by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The Lady Vikings (6-0, 17-0) are ranked No. 1 and they hold a 48-47 win over New Castle as well. Hopewell holds a one-game lead over the second-place Lady ’Canes.

The Lady Bridgers (2-4, 7-6) trailed 28-18 in the second quarter and battled back as New Castle held a 33-28 halftime buffer. The Lady ’Canes started the third quarter strong and pulled away.

“We had a couple of times where we let leads disappear,” Rankin said. “They kept coming at us. They outrebounded us (32-28) and when you play a bigger team it’s your quickness against their size; they’re a good team.”

Christina Talbert and LaShauna Brothers backed up Waters’ effort with 14 points apiece. Talbert added eight steals and seven assists.

JaNia McPhatter contributed six steals and five rebounds to go along with her nine points.

New Castle struggled at the foul line, sinking just nine of its 24 attempts.

“It was just one of those things,” Rankin said of the foul shooting. “We’ve had games where we shot 75 to 80 percent.

“This is the second time this year against a quality opponent that we didn’t shoot well at the line. I’m definitely concerned with that.

“We don’t want those to come back to haunt us. We have good foul shooters, too.”

Courtney Parisi paced the Lady Bridgers with 17 points.

Ambridge committed 33 turnovers and New Castle added 23 miscues.

“I thought we were able to force some turnovers and make some runs,” Rankin said. “Overall, I thought we played pretty well defensively.”

New Castle returns to action at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Center (1-5, 4-10) in section action.