Devastated, but not destroyed.

The effects of Northwestern’s gut-wrenching loss to North Schuylkill in the District 11 Class 4A semifinals could have easily carried over to Saturday’s consolation game against Blue Mountain.

But the Tigers didn’t allow that to happen.

These Tigers weren’t folding their proverbial tent. Instead, they regrouped the way all good teams do.

Northwestern’s senior leadership helped turned the devastation from earlier in the week to motivation against the Eagles.

The result was a 50-36 victory that kept the Tigers’ season alive.

There were plenty of highlights for Northwestern (26-2), but none stood out more than the performance of standout Paige Sevrain. The talented senior not only provided outstanding leadership in helping her teammates bounce back from their loss to the Spartans, but she also provided plenty of highlights on the court against Blue Mountain as well.

The most memorable of the on-court moments for the Bloomsburg University-bound player came with 1:56 remaining when she ducked inside and kissed a shot off the glass to become the all-time girls basketball scoring leader in Northwestern history.

By that time, Sevrain and her teammates had all but wrapped up their most important goal - winning the game and advancing to the state tournament.

“I didn’t know what to think at first,” Sevrain said with a wide smile that went from ear to ear. “Once I got it, it was very exciting. Oh God, I said to myself, ‘you finally did it.’

“But breaking the record wasn’t my first priority today. My first priority was to help the team win.”

And they did exactly that - despite having to overcome one of the toughest losses head coach Chris Duetsch can remember experiencing during his long tenure with the Tigers.

“I’ve been coaching here 20 years, and after the loss to North Schuylkill as I was walking to the lockers, I really tried to dig deep and use all my experience to figure out the best way to help put the loss behind us and focus on what we still had ahead of us,” Deutsch said. “I can tell you this, that loss was a tough one … it was a gut-punch.

“But I’m really proud of how we came back from that loss. I thought our team showed a lot of maturity. Having three seniors like Paige (Sevrain), Maci (Fisher), and Nina (Miller) was a huge help, too. They made sure that we were focused today and not still thinking about the North Schuylkill game.”

Nearly every player had a hand in firing up the engine.

Brook Balliet led the Tigers with 12 points, while Cara Thomas added 10. Sevrain followed with nine, and both Fisher and Paige Bissell finished with eight points.

Though Northwestern held just a scant 6-5 lead after a quarter, one could sense it was just a matter of time.

In the second quarter, the Tigers began to flex their muscles to open the second quarter. Savrain hit a foul shot to polish off a three-point play to start a run, Balliet followed with a triple. Thomas, Bissell, Balliet and Sevrain all added more points before the quarter ended as Northwestern built a 25-12 halftime lead.

The Tigers would end any comeback hopes Blue Mountain had in the third quarter, outscoring the Eagles 15-5 to open a commanding 40-17 advantage.

“Our girls did a very good job of executing,” said Deutsch. “I know Blue Mountain was missing a couple of key players from when we played them earlier in the year, and they’re a different team without them.

“But I’m extremely proud of the way our girls came out and took care of business.”

BOARD WORK … The Tigers had a 26-24 rebounding edge with, Sevrain and Fisher grabbing eight apiece.

QUOTEABLE … “We knew that we could still do more, and there was still another chance.” Sevrain said on getting the team ready to play Blue Mountain.

UP NEXT … The Tigers get a home game Tuesday in a state play-in contest against Lewisburg - the District 4 third-place team. The game starts at 7 p.m.

BLUE MOUNTAIN

Heydt 3-3-4-9, Conway 4-0-0-8, K. Faust 2-2-2-7, Wagner 3-0-0-6, Hall 1-0-0-3, Hardy 1-0-0-2, Place 0-1-2-1, Gibson 0-0-0-0, Campbell 0-0-0-0, J. Faust 0-0-0-0, Armenise 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 14-6-8-36.

NORTHWESTERN

Balliet 4-2-3-12, Thomas 2-6-8-10, Sevrain 4-1-1-9, Bissell 2-3-3-8, Fisher 3-2-2-8, Miller 1-0-0-3, Freeman 0-0-0-0, Reinhart 0-0-0-0, McGinley 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 16-14-17-50.

Blue Mtn. 5 7 5 19 - 36

N’western 6 19 15 10 - 50

Three-pointers: Blue Mountain - Faust 1, Hall 1; Northwestern - Balliet 2, Bissell 1, Miller 1.