Lehighton and Northwestern Lehigh went until the final couple weeks of the regular season to play each other and then had to meet twice in one week.

Last Friday night it was Natalie Conner hitting a shot in the final seconds to give Northwestern Lehigh a win and the Indians their first loss of the season.

Last night was round two and again much of the credit went to the sophomore guard, but her heroics started earlier in the game.

After scoring two points in the first half, Conner erupted for 14 after intermission to lead her team to a 43-42 win over the Indians Friday night in New Tripoli.

“I was down on myself,” she said. “In the first half I didn’t score what I know I can, but I knew it was going to be a long game that was going to come down to the last second and if I can’t make any shots, then I’m going to get every rebound and I am going to make every defensive play. It wasn’t just about offense, it was rebounding, defense, everything.”

After halftime, the game belonged to Conner and senior teammate Olivia Reinhart.

With the teams having met a week earlier, Northwestern head coach Chris Deutsch wanted at least one new wrinkle in the game plan.

“We really tried to establish Liv Reinhart, and we ran a new play that we had not shown all year,” said Deutsch. “We put it in just for this game and Liv got us going there a little bit in the second half. We wanted to get her some shots in the post, and I thought she did a good job of getting those.”

Reinhart played a strong game in the post and hit a three-pointer that put Northwestern up 7-2 early in the game. Reinhart got the scoring started in the third quarter and pulled the Tigers to within one after they went into halftime trailing 21-18.

Down by as many as five points in the first quarter, Lehighton battled back on three straight baskets by senior Ryleigh Trotman to take an 8-7 lead.

When Northwestern pulled ahead in the second quarter, it was Trotman who hit a jumper to put the Indians back on top at 15-14. Ava Serfass stretched the lead to three and Olivia Serfass hit on a turn-around jumper to put the Indians up 19-14.

Olivia Reinhart hit the second of two foul shots to tie the game 23-23 with 5:20 left in the third quarter, but Trotman got hot again and hit two more shots to stretch the lead to 33-27. Trotman finished with 16 points on the night, tying Conner for the game-high in scoring.

Opening the fourth, Conner scored seven points in a 55-second span to put Northwestern up 36-35. A 12-3 run put the Tigers up 41-38 with 3:05 left in regulation.

The Indians weren’t about to hang their heads.

Trotman scored her final points of the night, and Lehighton got a stop at the other end of the court.

Trailing by a point, Ava Serfass delivered a pass to Breille Parliman, whose lay up to put the Indians up 42-41 with 1:45 left.

An Emma Freeman steal and a layup gave Northwestern a 43-42 advantage with 1:00 remaining in regulation.

“As soon as we went into the press,” said Freeman. “I just saw how they were setting up, and I saw her eyeing up to skip pass. I just gave it my all because we were still behind at that point and I knew I had to try to get the steam.

“The layup was a little nerve-wracking because those wide-open layups can be difficult when you are under that much pressure, but I was able to finish it. It felt really good to help my team like that.”

Just as in the first meeting, Lehighton had a chance for a late three-pointer, but it bounced off of the rim and was rebounded by Freeman as the buzzer sounded.

“Sometimes tonight it went their way, sometimes it went our way,” said Lehighton head coach Nadia Gauronsky. “We had everything right at the end, we just couldn’t hit that shot”

WHAT A MESS… Three teams – Lehighton (14-2), Notre Dame – Green Pond (12-1) and Northwestern (13-2) – have shot at the top seed in the Colonial League. The Crusaders have five games against league opponents to finish the regular season. Lehighton and Northwestern both have two league games remaining.

If Notre Dame wins its final five games it will clinch the top seed. If the Crusaders lose one of those games and Lehighton wins out, the Indians will be the top seed by virtue of their win over Notre Dame earlier in the season. Northwestern would have to win out, see the Crusaders lose three of their final five games and Lehighton lose one of its two remaining games to get the top seed. There are also district power rankings to sort out and it’s anybody’s guess what happens there. A league championship puts a school in the top seed for districts and teams from three different leagues are likely to qualify for the girls 4A bracket.

LEHIGHTON

O. Serfass 4-0-0-8, Reph 0-0-0-0, Uyvari 2-0-2-6, Trotman 8-0-1-16, A. Serfass 2-0-0-4, Parliman 3-0-0-8, TEAM: 19-0-3-42.

NORTHWESTERN

Bernhard 0-0-0-0, C. Gober 2-0-0-5, Freeman 3-0-0-6, J. Snyder 0-0-0-0, A. Snyder 0-0-0-0, H. Gober 2-2-2-6, N. Conner 6-3-4-16, M. Conner 0-0-0-0, Reinhart 4-1-4-10, TEAM: 17-6-10-43.

Lehighton 11 10 14 7 - 42

Northwestern 10 8 11 14 - 43

Three-poionters: Lehighton - Uyvari 2, Parliman 2; Northwestern - C. Gober 1, N. Conner 1, O. Reinhart 1.

Records: Lehighton (16-2; 14-2); Northwestern (16-3; 14-2).