Watching the nervous energy ooze from his team Friday night in the form of mistakes, bad decisions and — at the time — a deficit on the scoreboard, Lancaster Catholic girls' basketball coach Lamar Kauffman knew he had to do something.

After all, it was less than 48 hours ago that his players gave him a huge gift with an L-L League semifinal victory over Manheim Township, which earned Kauffman his 700th career coaching win.

Now, it was time to give back.

"I said to them (during a timeout in the second quarter Friday night) 'Look, you girls won a game for me the last time we played,' " Kauffman recalled. " 'You wanted to win that one for me. Win this one for yourselves. … This (game) is not mine, it's yours.' "

From that point on, it certainly was.

Using its swarming, trapping defense to seize command for good in the second quarter, Lancaster Catholic eventually cruised to a 53-33 victory over the Blazers in the L-L title game at Manheim Township.

It was the 10th L-L crown in program history for the Crusaders (who surpassed their own previous league record of nine), and their first since 2006.

It was also the third time this season Catholic (21-3) knocked off Section Four foe Mennonite (18-7), which dropped decisions of 54-51 and 67-55 to the Crusaders during the regular season.

"It just feels amazing," said Catholic junior forward Emily Martin, whose 2010-11 season was cut short by a leg injury. "I mean last year I wasn't even playing in leagues, and to come back and win it this year … it was such a team effort. It was great."

Even if it didn't exactly start that way.

Victimized by seven turnovers and 3-for-12 shooting in the first period, the Crusaders found themselves in a 12-8 hole after one quarter.

"I think we were a little bit too hyped up, a little bit too nervous," Martin explained. "But at halftime we slowed down, we calmed down and got back in there and took over the game."

It actually started before that.

Getting six points from Porscha Speller (game-high 21) during a 10-0 run to start the second, Catholic took an 18-12 lead with 5:23 left in the quarter.

Another drive by Speller with five seconds left in the period eventually pushed the Crusaders's edge to 25-17 at halftime.

"The first thing that changed in the second quarter is we started taking care of the basketball better," said Kauffman, who also got 10 points from sophomore guard Danielle Atkinson. "The second thing was we turned up the defense.

"Once (Mennonite) got in their pattern, we started to adjust our defenses. And that presented a problem (for the Blazers).

A big one, actually.

Fact is, in the second quarter alone, Mennonite turned the ball over an astounding 13 times against Catholic's stifling assortment of presses, and got off just four shots.

Someone once said that fear breeds hesitation, and hesitation will make your worst fears come true.

As the Blazers, rushed time and again to find an outlet pass against Catholic's double-team traps, were learning.

"Most of the game is confidence," Mennonite coach Sherri Gorman said. "And when you're going to go against Lancaster Catholic you've got to be confident in who you are. As soon as you start second-guessing yourself or hesitating it's … whoosh.

"Catholic is just praying and waiting for that."

The "whoosh" factor of which Gorman spoke was undeniable in the third quarter, when the Crusaders put things away for good — despite a handful of Mennonite efforts to get back in the game.

After Blazers' guard/forward Jess Rheinheimer (team-high 15 points) opened the third with a bucket underneath that cut the lead to 25-19, Catholic got back-to-back 3-pointers from Erin Holt and Amy Balasavage to push the Crusaders' advantage back into double digits (31-19).

Another bucket from Rheinheimer capped a 4-0 Mennonite spurt at the 5:47 mark to make it 31-23, before Catholic responded with a 7-0 mini-run to go up 38-23.

And after a Dee Probst putback kept the lead at 38-25 with 4:22 left in the period, the Crusaders responded again with a 12-4 quarter-ending run that gave them a commanding 50-29 edge.

Not helping the Blazers' cause was Catholic's 10-for-17 shooting from the field as a team in the third, when it also forced five more Mennonite turnovers.

"After we started the third, I could just tell the energy wasn't there, and it's like 'Oh boy, we're in trouble,' " Gorman said. "And to (Catholic's) credit, they just tightened everything down and we were finished.

"They just crushed us in the third quarter. Crushed us."

And because of it, crushed the legitimacy of a preseason forecast, which had most of the league's coaches mentioning the Crusaders behind Manheim Township and Solanco.

"We kind of crept in there," Martin said with a grin. "We were kind of shaky starting out (in December), but I could feel we were getting stronger and stronger as the season went on."

Kind of like Friday's game, which ended with the Crusaders hoisting L-L gold and rising up a ladder to cut down the net.

Catholic's players saved the last piece of that net for Kauffman, who snipped it free from the rim and waved it triumphantly toward the Crusaders' large cheering section from the top of the ladder.

"He coaches us so hard and so well, that he deserves as many wins as he can possibly get," Balasavage said of Kauffman. "He's more like a father figure to us the way he not only teaches us about the game but about life. And it really keeps us motivated."

Which was exactly what Kauffman was hoping for Friday with his little chat during that second-quarter huddle.

Not because he was looking for a 701st win or a 10th L-L title.

But because his players were looking for their first.

jfulginiti@lnpnews.com