It was a family feud, sort of.

Northern Lehigh, coached by Jeff Miller, and Lehighton, coached by Jeff’s son Trevor Miller, met Thursday night in the championship game of the Slatington Rotary Invitational Tournament with the Bulldogs hoisting the trophy after a hard-fought 52-48 victory in front of their home crowd.

Jeff Miller was quick to say that the game was between his team and Lehighton, but when your son is the opposing coach, one can’t help but think family bragging rights will be front and center the next time the families sit down at the dinner table.

Put aside the family drama, and fans got to watch a game where the outcome was undecided until Northern Lehigh’s Brandon Hess, the tournament MVP, scorched the net for 13 fourth-quarter points to open up what was a back-and-forth scoring exchange for much of the game.

“We knew they could make a run, especially if Hess got hot,” said Trevor Miller. “We kind of lost him in transition in the fourth and you saw what he could do.”

“Brandon put our team on his back in the final minutes,” said Jeff Miller. “When he finds an opening and gets in a groove, he just doesn’t miss.”

Hess totaled six treys on the night and tallied 13 of his team-high 22 points in the final 4:30 of the contest. He made three consecutive long balls that had erased a 5-0 Indian run at the start of the quarter and staked Lehighton to a 38-36 lead at the 6:26 mark.

At the start, Northern Lehigh was as cold as the weather outside, scoring only six points in the first eight minutes on 3-of-12 from the floor. Lehighton’s Zach Hunsicker, who had a game-high 23 points, and Zach Crum, scored eight of their team’s 10 points for a four-point lead.

Northern Lehigh applied half-court pressure on the Indians’ guards at the start of the second, which sparked a Bulldog rally. Hess and AJ Berger, who dropped down nine points in the second session, lifted NL to a 16-13 edge with 4:45 to go before the intermission. Both teams combined for seven three-point baskets, but it was Crum’s downtowner with six seconds remaining that gave Lehighton a one-point lead at the break.

“I thought we did OK in the first half,’ said Trevor, “but we weren’t hitting the boards hard enough and not boxing out for rebounds.”

“We wanted to slow them down with our defensive pressure and make them work harder for their shots,” said Jeff Miller. “We rebounded well in the first half, but I was concerned about our depth and getting tired because it’s tough to play on back to back nights.”

Lehighton appeared to solve the press at the start of the third. Addison Howland’s driving layup off a steal put the Tribe ahead by seven at 31-24 and Hunsicker’s short bank shot off an inbounds pass made it 33-26.

But the Bulldogs clicked into a 10-0 run in the last half of the period. Preston Kemery’s bucket at 1:20 tied the score at 33 and Zach Moyer’s trey gave the Dogs a margin of three points going into the fourth period.

Hess did not miss a single shot to secure the championship for the Bulldogs.

ALL TOURNAMENT TEAM

... The all-tournament team was announced after the conclusion of the championship game. It included Nate Rosahac of Jim Thorpe, Nate Dougherty of Palmerton, Zach Crum and Zach Hunsicker of Lehighton, Preston Kemery of Northern Lehigh and MVP Brandon Hess of Northern Lehigh.

LEHIGHTON

Heery 1-0-0-3, Hunsicker 8-2-2-23, Crum 3-3-4-12, Beers 0-0-0-0, Haydt 0-0-0-0, Schwab 0-0-0-0, Howland 3-0-0-6, Potts 0-0-0-0, Schatz 2-0-0-4. TOTALS: 17-5-6-48.

NORTHERN LEHIGH

Keller 1-2-2-4, Kemery 3-1-3-7, Moyer 4-0-0-10, Seirer 0-0-0-0, Berger 3-2-2-9, Hess 8-6-6-22. Smith 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 21-11-13-52.

Lehighton 10 12 11 15 - 48

No. Lehigh 6 15 15 16 - 52

Three pointers: Leh – Heery 1, Hunsicker 5, Crum 3. NL – Moyer 2,Berger 1.