02/20/25 Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski / Northern Bedford's Addie Love takes a shot over Southern Fulton's Mae Hoopengardner.

WARFORDSBURG — The Northern Bedford girls basketball team used the 3-point line, and some opportunistic defense, on Thursday night to knock off No. 2 seed Southern Fulton, 63-52, on the road in the District 5 Class 1A semifinals.

The win puts them in the championship game next Thursday against the winner of this afternoon’s Turkeyfoot Valley-Fannett-Metal game.

It marked the second time this year that Northern (11-12) defeated the Lady Indians, who did beat Northern once earlier this season as well.

“All three of them, I do believe, were 10-point games,” Northern Bedford coach Jon Ewert said. “We blew a couple of games this season that we thought were going to be wins. Life on the road is tough. It’s hard when you’re not that (No.) 2 seed or (No.) 1 seed. Our road record is not good this year. We have three wins on the road now. It was a little bit nerve-racking with this environment here.”

Northern Bedford, which got double-digit scoring from four players, took a 37-32 halftime lead after playing to a 24-24 tie early in the second quarter. A 13-8 run in the final 4:40 of the first half helped that.

It also helped that Addie Love scored six points in the second and 11 in the first half. Amberly Detterline added two 3-pointers in the second and eight overall in the first half. Alyssa Yeatts nailed three 3-pointers and totaled 12 first-half points.

“We shot with confidence tonight, and we played really good defense,” Love, the only senior on the roster, said. “When we were down here running our offense, and we weren’t rushing things and playing our game. I was so proud of our team.”

The Lady Indians (12-11) made things interesting with a small run keyed by Claire Harvey and Sosefina Ah Loe. They cut the lead to 41-38 at the 4:08 mark, but Northern didn’t skip a beat. Detterline, Halle Baker and Yeatts all hit big buckets to put the Lady Panthers up 52-42 after three in a game in which they hit 11 3-pointers to just five from their opponent.

Harvey, who finished with 30 points, scored only five in the third quarter and just six in the fourth quarter, mostly because she fouled out in the final two minutes.

“We stuck with man the whole way with our defense, and then made some adjustments off that ball screen coming off the high post with (Claire Harvey). She’s a fantastic athlete,” Ewart said. “Tough to contain. She’s just hard-nosed.”

Love knew that Harvey, only a sophomore, would get her points.

“She scored her 30, but we held her team to what we needed to to get the win,” said Love, noting that seven other Southern players combined for 22 points.

The fourth quarter turned into a foul-shooting contest as Northern didn’t allow the Lady Indians to get any closer than seven points. The Lady Panthers shot 22 free throws in the final frame, making just one field goal, but still outscored their opponent, 11-10. Love wound up fouling out and had to watch the final 3:47 on the bench.

“It really hit me hard at first because I thought this potentially could be my last game,” Love said. “But I had faith in my teammates, and my coach told me I wasn’t allowed to cry. I had such faith in my teammates. I am so so proud of them.”

Love got to watch Halle Baker hit five foul shots while Yetts, Detterline and Hailee Troy each made one down the stretch.

“We didn’t shoot as well from the foul line as I would like,” said Ewert, whose players went 20 of 40 from the charity stripe. “But we still made enough at the end of the night and that’s what we like.”

Yeatts finished with 19 points to go with 18 points from Detterline and 10 each from Love and Baker.

“We came into this game ready to play,” Love said. “We knew this game was going to be high energy. We meshed so well, and tonight that showed for sure.”

NORTHERN BEDFORD (63): Love 3 4-8 10, Baker 1 7-14 10, A. Yeatts 5 5-10 19 Be. Gable 1 0-0 2, Barton 0 1-2 1, Detterline 6 2-4 18, Bl. Gable 0 0-0 0, Reasy 0 0-0 0, Smith 0 0-0 0, Troy 0 1-2 1, H. Yeatts 0 0-0 0. Totals — 16 20-40 63.

SOUTHERN FULTON (52): Schreiver 2 2-4 6, Smith 0 0-0 0, Harvey 9 9-16 30, Hoopengardner 1 0-0 2, Johnson 2 0-0 6, Burrows 0 0-0 0, Ah Loe 3 2-2 8, Mellott 0 0-0 0. Totals — 17 13-22 52.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Northern Bedford 20 17 15 11 — 63

Southern Fulton 20 12 10 10 — 52

3-point goals: Northern Bedford 11 (Love 2, Baker, A. Yeatts 4, Detterline 4), Southern Fulton 5 (Johnson 2, Harvey 3).

Records: Northern Bedford (11-12), Southern Fulton (12-11).

Officials: Mike Price, Steve Oakes, Jesse Topper.