Palmerton head coach Leigh Keenan has become reluctantly familiar with his team's 'one bad quarter' through the first 14 games of the season. Like that one pesky relative at holiday dinners, this poor period has been known to ruin the entire game's outcome.

Last night proved to be no different, as Notre Dame of Green Pond blitzed Palmerton in the second and went on to post a 73-58 Colonial League victory."Our biggest enemy is ourselves," Keenan said. "Nothing that the opposing teams do is so overwhelming that we can't overcome. We usually play one quarter bad and play three very well."After the Bombers took an 11-6 first period lead, the "annoying uncle" of a stanza changed the entire complexion of the contest as the Crusaders outscored Palmerton 28-7 to build a 16-point lead at intermission.Both sides had plenty of standout performances, as Notre Dame's Tanner Reed had a game-high 29 points and 18 rebounds to lead the winners.Palmerton sophomore Spencer Hay erupted for 18 points, 11 rebounds, four assists and two blocks, while teammate Logan Lesher impressed with 14 points and eight assists."I was impressed with Palmerton," Crusader head coach Pat Boyle said. "They have some good, young players. They pass well and do things well. That first quarter really put us on our heels, but then in the second, I was able to put in our big guy and that got the other guys more excited."Vincent Eze is the "big guy" Boyle was talking about. Eze, who stands 6-8, had been sidelined with an injury for the past seven games and made his return against Palmerton (1-13), allowing his team to take on a different outlook. Altering shot attempts by the Bombers on defense and providing his teammates with an inside game on offense freed up some open threes.The Bombers outscored the Crusaders 15-14 in the third, cutting the deficit to 48-33 heading into the final quarter.Hay and Reed traded put-backs, before the Bombers started dialing long distance. Freshman Joey Suto, Nick Frey and Lesher all hit three-pointers to cut the Crusader lead to nine with 5:33 left.But a 9-0 run by Notre Dame in the span of two minutes put the game out of reach as the Crusaders' lead swelled to 62-44."At that point, we nearly bobbled the ball three times, but if (Palmerton) gets a steal and scores, the lead's down to seven and it's a totally different game," Boyle said. "Luckily we were able to keep it together and get the win and I'm proud of the way we did."NOTRE DAME GREEN PONDTachim 0-0-0-0, Daniel 0-0-0-0, O'Toole 5-0-2-10, Maldanado 1-0-0-2, Reed 12-2-6-29, Kelly 4-5-6-15, Welsh 0-0-0-0, C. Snyder 1-0-0-2, Gregg 4-1-2-9, Eze 3-0-0-6. TOTALS: 30-8-16-73.PALMERTONHay 9-0-0-18, Achtermann 2-0-0-4, Lesher 6-0-1-14, Weber 2-0-0-5, Frey 1-0-0-3, Suto 1-0-0-3, Quinn 2-1-2-5, Stasko 3-0-2-6. TOTALS: 26-1-5-58.Notre Dame 6 28 14 25 - 73Palmerton 11 7 15 25 - 58Three pointers: ND - Reed 3, Kelly 2; P - Lesher 2, Weber 1, Frey 1, Suto 1.