Early on, in Northwestern’s District 11 Class 4A semifinal game against Allentown Central Catholic Tuesday, it looked like the ball simply wouldn’t fit through the basket.

The Tigers put up shot after shot, but few fell through the net, with many of them seemingly going in and then being shot back out by some invisible force.

The end result was a big early deficit that turned into a 66-41 loss for the Tigers.

A three-pointer by Sam Vaughn just 22-seconds into the game put the Vikings up 8-0 and led Northwestern coach Billy Hallman to call a timeout.

His message was simple. “I told our guys ‘you’re making the shots, they’re just not falling. Don’t panic, if those shots are there all night, we’re going to be fine.’”

Northwestern put some points on the board and seemed to be climbing back until Nick Filchner and Chad Kratzer hit back-to-back three-pointers, and by the end of the first quarter, Central Catholic held a 25-8 advantage.

From there, the Northwestern defense, which seemed to be a step or two behind the Vikings in the opening quarter, started to settle in and contain the potent offense of Central Catholic. The only problem was that the shots still weren’t falling for Northwestern.

Northwestern moved to within 13 early in the third quarter, but the Vikings again went to work and after Filchner hit a pair of three-pointers, the writing appeared to be on the wall. The Tigers again looked to rally in the final quarter, but Central Catholic turned aside the uprising and went on to take the win and a spot in the District 11 championship game Friday night.

“We never really pulled ourselves close enough where we had them on the ropes, and then we started to press a little bit offensively and got a little impatient,” said Hallman. “It was a tough night, but we’ll regroup.”

Filchner finished with a game-high 19 points for the Vikings, with Kratzer finishing with 13. Devin Thomas led Northwestern with 14 points, and Deven Bollinger had 12.

SETTING THE MATCHUPS ... Northwestern will now face Wilson Friday night in the District 11 4A consolation game. While both teams go to states, the winner will receive a slightly more favorable seeding as the No. 3 team out of District 11. Central Catholic and Bethlehem Catholic will play for the district championship Friday night. Both games will be played at Freedom High School, with the consolation game starting at 6 p.m. and the championship game to follow.

BIG MAN OUT ... One couldn’t help but notice the absence of Luke Hallman for Northwestern. The 6-1, 270-pound junior is out with his second ACL tear in as many seasons for the Tigers. His tough presence inside would have allowed Bollinger to have more of a presence away from the basket. “Our guys have stepped up for Luke, but having him tonight may have helped to fend off some of their toughness around the basket and allow us to do some different things with Deven [Bollinger],” said coach Hallman.

NORTHWESTERN

Hebelka 0-0-0-0, Seyfried 0-0-0-0, Yadush 1-7-8-9, Hagadus 1-0-0-2, Bollinger 4-4-6-12, McCann 1-0-0-3, Rebert 0-0-0-0, Henry 0-1-2-1, Snyder 0-0-0-0, Thomas 6-2-2-14, Holmes 0-0-0-0, Garrido 0-0-0-0, TOTALS 13-14-18-41

ALLENTOWN CC

Spugnardi 4-1-4-9, Green 1-0-0-3, Thomas 4-3-3-11, Vaughn 1-0-0-3, Burneister 0-0-0-0, Faust 1-0-0-2, Filchner 7-0-0-19, Reed 0-0-0-0, Khoury 1-0-0-2, Joyce 1-2-4-4, Kratzer 4-4-4-13, TOTALS 24-10-15-66

Northwestern 8 10 8 15 - 41

Allentown CC 25 10 14 17 - 66

Three-pointers: NW – McCann 1. ACC – Filchner 5, Green 1, Vaughn 1, Kratzer 1.