New Castle’s defense got exposed against North Catholic in nonsection action.

The Lady ’Canes (2-1) were held to 35 points in the first three quarters, while they allowed 53.

New Castle did play without starter Christina Talbert, who was out because of disciplinary reasons, but that did little to ease the frustrations of coach Jason Rankin.

“It was one of those situations where we were kind of ripe to be picked,” Rankin said. “Defensively, we hadn’t played well even against Shaler. They were able to handle our pressure and make some shots — some easy ones.”

While New Castle had the game’s two highest scorers in Kaylynn Waters (26) and LaShauna Brothers (21), the Lady Trojans (2-1) had four players score in double figures. Erin DiSanti led the way with 16, while Carah Johnson recorded 15, Kendall Hoffman provided 14 and Angela Nowacki contributed 12.

Rankin said North Catholic, which was a WPIAL Class A finalist last year, was better prepared than the Lady ’Canes.

“When you see teams like this, they are teams that aren’t going to be intimidated,” he said. “They’ve been good for a long time, so there’s a certain expectation when you play for North Catholic. The one thing I was really concerned with was our defense. We were gambling too much, and we got exposed.”