Don't ever let anyone tell you that "Pride" doesn't come into play when Northern Lehigh and Palmerton get together in any kind of competition.

Never was that more evident than last night, when the two met in girls basketball for the third time this season.Earlier in the season, the Blue Bombers put an end to the Bulldogs' Colonial League and regular season win streak that started back in the 2008-09 season.This time, it was Northern Lehigh's turn to pull out all stops and it rolled to a 55-41 triumph on.Both teams have already qualified for the Colonial League playoffs next week and it is very possible the two could meet in a more meaningful game then."We played well tonight," said Northern Lehigh head coach Dave Oertner. "We moved the ball a little bit ahead of their pressure. We stayed one pass ahead of their run-and-jump tonight and that's what made it for us."The Bulldogs are used to double figure performances from 1,000-point scorers Aimee Oertner and Sonya Josephseon, but this time senior Kristi Seiler had an outstanding performance both offensively and defensively.The senior scored 15 points, hitting some big buckets in the first and third quarters."I can't say enough about Kristi Seiler," added Oertner. "She had a great game. Teams think that she can't do anything. She can shoot."She hasn't been forced to score because we have Aimee and Sonya do the scoring, but they were leaving her to run-and-jump and double team. They figured we'll leave her alone and she won't hurt us. Kristi can play the game, she knows what she's doing out there and she's a very smart kid. She showed tonight what she was capable of doing."Clinging to a 15-12 lead after the first eight minutes, the Bulldogs put together a run in the second quarter that enabled them to build up a 28-15 lead at the half.Northern Lehigh actually ran off 11 straight points from the end of first quarter until Palmerton's Casey Rinfret hit a three-pointer with 2:47 left in the half. That was the only bucket by the Bombers in the period.Things got a little out of sync in the first minute of the third quarter when Oertner attempted to call a time out as the action was getting a bit physical and neither official heard him. He was eventually hit with a technical when one official noticed he was too far out on the court.The Bombers cut what was a 15-point lead down to nine, but the Bulldogs came to their coach's defense and Seiler and Aimee Oertner made it a 41-30 lead heading into the final eight minutes.Aimee Oertner and Josephson had six and four respectively down the stretch as the Bulldogs widened their lead to 18 before Kristen Romano scored the final four points for Palmerton."This game really didn't mean that much overall. It's next week that really counts," Oertner noted. " But I think our kids wanted to show that the last time we didn't play our best and I know they can play a lot better than they did tonight."Both teams played with a lot more intensity than they did last time. We played a lot smarter than we did last time we met also."Aimee Oertner finished the night with 23 points and Josephson added 12 to join Seiler in double figures. Rinfret and Julie Farquhar had 10 points apiece for the Bombers."We managed to keep it close in the first quarter, but that was it," said Palmerton head coach Don Delich. "Later on, we had a hard time getting it under 10. They did a good job. Kristi Seiler played one heck of a game. Hopefully we'll get to see them again next week."PALMERTONSmith 1-0-0-2, Reimer 0-3-4-3, Rickert 0-0-0-0, Romano 3-0-0-7, Mummey 0-0-0-0, Meinhart 0-0-0-0, Rinfret 4-1-3-10, Farquhar 4-2-2-10, Snyder 0-0-0-0, Hay 3-1-1-9. TOTALS: 15-7-10-41.NO. LEHIGHBastardi 2-1-1-5, Werley 0-0-0-0, L. Oertner 0-0-0-0, Josephson 3-6-8-12, A. Oertner 9-5-7-23, Seiler 7-0-0-15. TOTALS: 21-12-16-55.Palmerton 12 3 15 11 - 41No. Lehigh 15 13 13 14 - 55Three-pointers: P - Hay 2, Rinfret 1, Romano 1; NL - Seiler 1.