ALLENTOWN — For a team that thought their season was over and even turned in their uniforms, Northern Lehigh has had a pretty busy week.

After winning a District 11 play-in game against Lehigh Valley Academy, they had the unenviable task of facing Notre Dame-Green Pond, the top seed in 3A, in the quarterfinals Friday night at Executive Education Academy in Allentown.

The Bulldogs had two good quarters and two bad quarters, but the bad ones outweighed the good ones and led Northern Lehigh to a 44-37 loss to the Crusaders. Ella Schweitzer and Brenna Hammerstone led the Notre Dame with 10 points each while Ella Tosh led Northern Lehigh with a game-high 16 points.

The Bulldogs fell behind early but found openings outside the arc and hit for three three-pointers in the first quarter. Tosh hit for two and Jaylene Ramos had another one to leave the Northern down 10-9 at the end of the first quarter.

“We knew that we had to play a near perfect game because they’re a good team and really well coached,” said first-year coach Brandon Hibbler. “We had two good quarters, but they really took advantage of the middle two quarters and kind of put us away.”

Things looked good when Tosh hit a little jumper from just inside the foul line just :41 into the second quarter as Northern Lehigh took their first lead at 11-10. Unfortunately, those would be the last points that the Bulldogs would score for over eight minutes of game time as the Lady Crusaders moved to a 23-11 lead at halftime and made it 25-11early in the third quarter.

Tegan Simms got a put-back to make it 25-13, but that would be the only basket of the quarter for Northern Lehigh. They did go 6-for-10 from the foul line, but Notre Dame kept scoring as Schweitzer and Hammerstone both hit three-pointers as the Lady Crusaders stretched their lead to 17, their largest of the game at 36-19 through three quarters.

Northern Lehigh may have sensed that the game was not going to end well for them, but they never showed any signs of giving up. In fact, it looked like they wanted to hang onto their uniforms a little longer when Jaylene Ramos and Simms hit on back-to-back trips down the floor. Then, the three-point barrage got back on track with Tosh and Simms both dropping in bombs from beyond the arc, making it a 36-28 game with 4:38 left in regulation.

“I was proud of our girls the way they kept playing and worked to keep cutting into the lead for us,” explained Hibbler. “They have worked hard all season and we went from turning in the uniforms to getting back on the court and they just went right back to work for us.”

Ramos was called for her fifth foul of the night, and things got a little heated when the Bulldogs scorekeeper argued the call when the referee came to the scorer’s table to make the call. After a short delay, play resumed and no technical fouls or ejections were issued. Ava Shonk got her first basket since the second quarter with 3:41 left and then hit two foul shots a minute later to make it 40-28.

Even then, Tosh hit a long three and a little jumper from inside the arc and Emily Gad made one of two foul shots to bring the Bulldogs within six points with 1:33 left to play.

Schweitzer sealed the game when she hit three of four foul shots to make it 43-34 with just :35 left in regulation. Simms sank a final three-pointer and Sam Karwacki hit a foul shot for Notre Dame to make it 44-37 when the buzzer sounded.

GRADUATION BOUND ... Northern Lehigh loses five seniors – Jaylene Ramos, Kylee Snyder, Ella Tosh, Leah Wentz, and Ariana Williams – who Hibbler credited with helping the team through their leadership. “This was my first year here and they bought into everything we wanted to do, and the rest of the girls followed. They really set the tone and I thought that was really important for us.”

THE CRUSADE GOES ON ... While Notre Dame played on the Executive Education court to advance to the semifinals, the Raptors played at Palmerton against Mahanoy and also advanced. The Crusaders and Raptors will meet in one of the 3A semifinal games Tuesday night at Catasauqua High School. The other semifinal game has Schuylkill Haven facing sixth-seed Pine Grove, who knocked off third seed Catasauqua in the opening game Friday night at Executive Education.

NORTHERN LEHIGH

Powell 0-0-0-0, Williams 0-3-4-3, Gad 0-1-2-1, Ramos 1-3-4-6, Tosh 6-0-0-16, Simms 4-1-2-11, Snyder 0-0-2-0. TOTALS: 11-8-14-37.

NOTRE DAME

Shonk 2-4-6-9, Schweitzer 2-5-10-10, Hammerstone 3-2-4-10, Karwacki 0-1-2-1, Boyle 2-0-2-6, Hobbie 2-4-4-8, Beani 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 11-16-28-44.

No. Lehigh 9 2 8 18 - 37

Notre Dame 10 13 13 8 - 44

Three-pointers: NL - Tosh 4, Simms 2, Ramos 1; ND - Hammerstone 2, Boyle 2, Shonk 1, Schweitzer 1.

NL (10-14); ND (21-5).