BETHLEHEM – Northwestern repeated as Colonial League champion with a 40-38 win over top-seeded Palmerton on Friday night at Freedom High School..

After their win over Wilson in the semifinals, Palmerton (21-2) coach Dan Beck talked about the fact that controlling junior Paige Sevrain would have to be a focus for his team if they were going to dethrone the Tigers (21-4), who were the third seed in the league playoffs.

That did not pan out well as Sevrain hit for 18 points and collected 12 rebounds. Sevrain also had the game’s biggest basket as she hit what proved to be the game winner with just :18 left in regulation.

Freshman Brook Balliet finished with 12 points for the Tigers - just two off her season high - and pulled down the final rebound of the night for Northwestern.

“I am so proud of these girls,” said coach Northwestern Chris Deutsch, who was more animated and showed more emotion than usual following the win. “There were a lot of people who didn’t give us a chance at the beginning of the season because we were so young, and we made it this far because these girls tuned everything out and worked hard in practice and worked hard in games and they made this happen.”

Northwestern Lehigh went into the locker room at halftime with a 19-13 lead, their largest margin of the game to that point. True to form as a team known for their dominance in the second half of games, the Tigers put together an early 11-3 run to stretch the lead to 14 points with 4:17 left to play in the third quarter.

It turned out they would need every bit of that run because Palmerton showed it was not going away. Beck called a timeout and the Blue Bombers quickly regrouped to cut the lead to five by the end of the quarter - they then came out just as hot in the fourth.

“We knew when we were up 30-16 that they were going to make another run at us,” said Deutsch. “They are not a team that quits, and they are good enough to come back from that, so we knew it was far from being over at that point.”

Bethie Morgan cut the deficit to 32-31 when she drained a three-pointer from the corner with 6:19 left to play in the game. Palmerton took another timeout with 3:01 to play and Northwestern still up by one. This time, the quick breather benefited the Tigers who saw Sevrain drain a couple foul shots and Balliet, who opened the third quarter with two long three-pointers, this time decided to drive the lane and connected on a layup with 2:20 left to put the Tigers up 38-33.

Yet another Palmerton run led to a tie game when Morgan put the team on her back and hit two foul shots as the opening act to knocking down a shot from behind the arc that knotted the score at 38-38 with just :45 left in regulation.

The teams traded turnovers before Sevrain found herself with an open look from the lane and hit a little jumper to make it 40-38.

Palmerton took its final timeout to set up a final shot and fed the ball to their three-point specialist senior Raegan Nemeth. The shot from just in front of the Palmerton bench, looked to be on target but bounced off the far rim of the basket to Balliet, who quickly got the ball down the court where Rachel Dorney took in the pass and ran out the final seconds of the game.

“I thought we tried to force shots. We took some bad ones, and the ball wasn’t going in for us” said Beck about the reasons why his team found itself facing a huge second half deficit. “I thought we did a good job coming back though and the girls played hard.

“The farther you go in the playoffs the tougher the competition gets, and we have to be ready for that.”

DON’T STOP NOW

... Both Palmerton and Northwestern have more work ahead of them in districts, which begin next week. As the top seed in Class 3A, Palmerton will have a bye into the semifinals. The title will give Northwestern a boost to the No. 2 seed in Class 4A where it will have a quarterfinal game against Lehighton. The game will be played next Saturday at a site to be determined.

THERE’S YOUR TROUBLE

... Palmerton shot just over 61 percent from the foul line coming into Friday night’s game, but went just 5-for-11 (46 percent) in the finals.

NORTHWESTERN

Bro Balliet 5-0-0-12, Miller 0-0-0-0, Bry Balliet 0-0-0-0, Thomas 2-0-0-4, Fisher 3-0-0-6, Dorney 0-0-0-0, Sevrain 7-4-4-18. TOTALS: 17-4-4-40

PALMERTON

Frantz 0-0-0-0, Barry 0-0-0-0, Matsko 3-0-2-6, Balliet 0-0-0-0, Nemeth 3-0-0-9, Morgan 4-3-4-14, Moore 3-2-5-9. TOTALS: 13-5-11-38

Northwestern 11 8 11 10 - 40

Palmerton 8 5 12 13 - 38

Three-pointers: Northwestern – Bro Balliet 2. Palmerton – Nemeth 3, Morgan 3, Moore 1.