SCHUYLKILL HAVEN - Northwestern Lehigh’s season came down to two things: A final chance to make states in the form of a consolation game against North Schuylkill, and a final shot in the game that fooled everybody and seemingly jumped out of the basket on its own accord.

In the end, the Tigers season came to a close, as they fell to the Spartans 44-40 in a game played at Blue Mountain High School.

A three-point shot from the Tigers’ Mallory Conner came with under a minute left in the game and Northwestern (19-6) trailing 42-40. She put up the shot from in front of the Tigers bench and the ball appeared to be on its way down through the nylon netting before reversing course and bouncing into the hands or North Schuylkill’s Eve Shovlin. The Spartans turned that rebound into two final points on foul shots by Mya Conti to put the game away.

North Schuylkill (20-5) came out with two quick three-pointers to open the game, but Northwestern shut down that option and quickly tied the game. From there on, the lead swung back and forth and got no more than a six-point swing either way as the Spartans rallied from a second quarter deficit of six points when Northwestern went on an 8-0 run early in the quarter.

“I thought our effort was good,” said Northwestern coach Chris Deutsch. “The mentality is next girl up, and we needed that tonight because we were playing a little short and our girls used that mentality and went with it.”

Deutsch was without sophomore Emma Freeman because of illness and limited the minutes for fellow sophomore Olivia Reinhart, who was also under the weather. Hannah Gober was back in the lineup after missing the district semifinal game against Blue Mountain.

The teams were tied 10-10 after one quarter, and North Schuylkill led 23-20 at the half. Junior Brook Balliet hit a three-pointer in the opening minute of the third quarter to again tie the game before Olivia Burke hit baskets on back-to-back trips down the floor and was fouled on the way to the hoop on the second one and hit the foul shot for a 28-23 advantage for the Spartans.

The Tigers simply went back to work, and by the end of the third quarter, the lead was down to 32-31

The lead changed four times in the first two minutes of the final quarter. Reinhart pulled down an offensive rebound and put it right back up to give the Tigers their first lead since the second quarter only to see the Spartans come right back. With the game tied at 37, Burke hit a three-pointer, one of four that she had in the game, as North Schuylkill went up 40-37. Conner matched the three-pointer and tied the game with 3:31 left in regulation, but that would be the last time the Tigers would score in the game.

Burke and Conti each nailed a pair of foul shots down the stretch to put the game away and earn the final spot in states from District 11 in the 4A classification.

“These girls did an outstanding job this season because we had to change what we were doing in past seasons because we lost six players from last year’s team and had different types of players this year,” said Deutsch. “We put in some things that I never coached before because we had players who could do different things for us,

“We only lose two players this year, so I think next season will be a lot easier because we will have something to work from and not have to redo as much.”

Balliet led the Tigers in scoring with 14 points, including three three-pointers. Burke scored a game-high 25 points for the Spartans and dropped in four three-pointers.

SPECIAL KUDOS

… Deutsch will lose Sadie Fenstermaker and Olivia Minnich to graduation. While neither player was a starter, both played key roles with the team. Minnich stepped into the starting lineup Wednesday night, and unofficially, had 10 rebounds in the game for Northwestern. “For them to stick it out and not get a lot of playing time really says something,” noted Deutsch. “Olivia started tonight for us, and we were comfortable putting her in there because she has gotten so much better and she plays extremely hard and doesn’t say a lot, but she is a great team player, and we are going to miss her. She really helped us with her rebounding tonight.”

MOVING UP

… Cara Thomas scored 11 points for Northwestern to move from ninth to sixth on its list of all-time scorers. She now stands at 1,012 points through her three seasons and moved ahead of Caitlin Miller (1,003), Sherry Yadinsky (1,006), and her older sister, Erika Thomas (1,007). Thomas has her senior season to look forward to and is 246 points behind all-time scoring leader Paige Sevrain, who set the mark at 1,258 last season. Thomas finished her junior season with 438 points for Northwestern Lehigh.

NORTHWESTERN LEHIGH

Balliet 5-1-2-14, Schaffer 0-0-0-0, Thomas 5-1-2-11, Minnich 2-0-0-4, Conner 1-0-0-3, Gober 1-0-0-2, Reinhart 3-0-1-6. TOTALS 15-2-5-40

NORTH SCHUYLKILL

Burke 9-3-4-25, Conti 2-2-5-7, Shovlin 1-0-0-2, Koutch 3-0-2-8, Stitzer 1-0-0-2, Flynn 0-0-2-0. TOTALS 16-5-13-44

Northwestern Lehigh 10 10 11 9 - 40

North Schuylkill 10 13 9 12 - 44

Three-pointers: NWL – Balliet 3, Conner 1. NS – Burke 4, Koutch 2, Conti 1.