She saved her best for last.
Nazareth center Analeza Edore was an offensive force to be reckoned with in the fourth quarter, leading the Lady Kingsmen to a 66–59 victory over Murry Bergtraum at the MECCA Challenge on Jan. 27.
Edore scored her team’s first 11 points in the fourth quarter and racked up 15 of her team-best 18 points in the final eight minutes of play.
“I was just thinking that I need to push,” Edore said. “We were down and we struggled with the turnovers, so I knew I had to make every single layup I could possibly make. I just wanted to go hard every single possession.”
Edore was exactly what her team needed late as both Nazareth and Murry Bergtraum struggled to find a rhythm throughout the non-league matchup.
The Lady Kingsmen racked up 15 first-half turnovers and failed to connect on a handful of jumpers just in front of the net in the first three quarters. Edore changed that, seizing momentum and keeping Nazareth in the game.
“I think I should have focused on her a little earlier,” said Nazareth coach Ron Kelley. “She put together a good game and she could have helped us put the game away earlier.”
The Lady Kingsmen grabbed a 10-point cushion midway through the third quarter, but Murry Begtraum refused to go down without a fight. The Lady Blazers clawed back to make it a four-point game heading into the fourth and, despite Edore’s best efforts, kept things tight down the stretch.
“We told ourselves we couldn’t let ourselves think about that,” said junior guard Shonnyvelle Regalado, who finished with 16 points. “We thought about the positives and striving to keep playing hard. We knew if we played good defense, the scoring would come with that.”
Nazareth settled into its 2–3 zone and forced its fair share of turnovers, determined to make sure Murry Begtraum could never quite hit its stride. The Lady Blazers didn’t help its own cause either — missing four straight free throws with just under a minute and a half left on the clock.
Edore wrapped up the Lady Kingmen’s victory with 37 seconds left, faking one way before spinning around a defender and draining a bank shot that had the entire bench on its feet.
“I had to get it in,” she said of the late-game shot. “I had to focus and make sure everything went in.”
It wasn’t a perfect victory — Nazareth wrapped up the game with over 30 turnovers — but it was still a notch in the win column and, right now, that’s all the Lady Kingsmen are worried about. They’re looking for a little consistency heading into the final few games of the regular season and a grind-it-out performance like this is exactly what the squad needed.
“We’re up and down, we’re very inconsistent so this is our third straight,” Kelley said. “Hopefully we can take this win back into league play and play some better basketball.”
