A Bella Marino 3-pointer late in the third quarter gave them a 32-21 lead, but that’s when the Braves’ Angelina Meola went off.

Meola, District 10’s second-leading scorer (24.5 ppg.), netted 15 of her game-high 20 points in the fourth and Iroquois outscored Eisenhower 28-8 over the final eight minutes en route to a 48-40 Region 2 victory on Thursday.

“The girls executed the game plan perfectly for three quarters; actually a little more than that,” said Eisenhower coach Mike Logue. “We just ran out of gas a little bit.”

Iroquois took its first lead since early in the first quarter on Alexis DiFuccia’s putback with 3:40 remaining, 39-38, and Meola did the rest.

Eisenhower’s Leah Peterson defends Iroquois’ Angelina Meola during the first half of Thursday’s game at Eisenhower High School.

“When you get tired, you also make a few mental mistakes,” Logue said. “But I thought the girls played hard. I’m proud of them. This is a great group and we’re really improving.”

The Lady Knights started strong, as a jumper from Delaney Chase in the closing moments of the first quarter gave them an 11-6 advantage.

That lead swelled to double digits in the second, thanks to the strong play of Emiley Wheeler.

The senior scored 14 of her team-high 16 points in the first half, and her putback made it 22-9 late in the second.

The Lady Knights’ (3-8 overall, 2-5 Region 2) lead never fell below eight until Meola’s 3 with 6:16 remaining in the game made it 34-29.

Lilee Renninger made 1-of-2 free throws and Chase connected on another jumper before Marino’s 3 made it an 11-point advantage.

“Our defense, we’ve really been stressing being in the right positions to help,” Logue said.

“I thought tonight we were getting there, and that’s exactly what we’ve been working on in practice.”

Jasmine Meola, part of the Meola triplets, was also in double figures scoring for Iroquois (6-6, 5-3) with 14 points.

Chase finished with 10 points and nine rebounds and Renninger eight points and eight rebounds.

The Lady Knights return to action Saturday, hosting Cambridge Springs with a 1 p.m. JV start.

“We have a stretch of games coming up, six in a week and a half, and we can play with any of them,” Logue said. “We’re right there.”

– – –

IROQUOIS (48)

Riner 1-0-0-2, Sterling 0-0-0-0, A. Meola 5-9-15-20, D. Meola 1-0-0-2, J. Meola 4-3-8-14, Selby 1-0-0-2, DiFuccia 2-2-2-6, Milner 1-0-0-2

EISENHOWER (40)

Marino 1-0-0-3, Peterson 1-1-2-3, Wheeler 7-2-7-16, Renninger 3-2-4-8, Chase 4-2-4-10, Jareno 0-0-0-0, Smyth 0-0-0-0

By Quarters

Iroquois 6 6 9 28 – 48

Eisenhower 11 11 10 8 – 40

Three-point FGs: Iroquois (3) – J. Meola 2, A. Meola; Eisenhower (1) – Marino

– —

JOHNSONBURG 50, SHEFFIELD 15

Sheffield’s Allison Schmader scored a game-high 10 points, but it was Johnsonburg that earned a 50-15 AML North win over the Wolverines on Thursday.

The Ramettes outscored Sheffield 28-6 in the first quarter en route to the win.

Kaci Stelene led a balanced Johnsonburg attack with nine points.