NORTHAMPTON — Northwestern Lehigh’s offense put up 17 points in the first quarter and went on to score just 25 points the rest of the game.

Meanwhile, its defense allowed just 25 points through the first three quarters and gave up 21 points over the final eight minutes.

It was like a perfect storm of events crashed down on the Tigers to end their season with a 46-42 loss to Central Catholic in the District 11 4A quarterfinals on Saturday afternoon at Catasauqua High School.

With a crew of referees that may have been a little overzealous in calling fouls against both teams, players on both sides got into foul trouble with a total of 48 foul shots being awarded in the game.

While the Vikettes appeared to be undaunted by the foul issues, Northwestern players may have become a little tentative.

“There were just a lot of fouls,” said Northwestern coach Chris Deutsch. “They were calling them on both teams, so it wasn’t like it was lopsided or anything, but there were a lot of fouls called. It’s tough to play that way, and I think maybe we were a little too conscious of that and looked to stay out of trouble.”

Northwestern took an early 17-12 lead after the first quarter with senior Emma Freeman putting up eight points to lead her team.

Central struggled to find any open shots in the second quarter, and had to settle for a pair of foul shots by Morgan Seagreaves for its only two points. By halftime, the Tigers were up 26-14 and appeared to be in good shape.

The Vikettes fell behind by 14 points early in the third quarter for their deepest deficit of the game, but started to work their way back when Alyssa Hursh hit a three-pointer and both Skylar Taylor and Seagreaves followed with baskets a little later, cutting the lead to seven at 29-22.

Northwestern senior Olivia Reinhart cut the rally short with a three-pointer, and Natalie Conner hit a turn-around jumper in the last minute of the quarter to make it 36-25 in favor of the Tigers.

“I thought we were playing really well. We got an early lead and our defense was playing well, but things just started to come apart for us and we couldn’t get back on track,” said Deutsch.

Within two minutes of each other, Conner, Freeman and Reinhart all picked up their fourth fouls of the game.

Central trailed 39-33 when the defensive holes started to open for Northwestern, and Central scored 13 unanswered points with a three-pointer from Hursh putting Central Catholic up for the first time since the second minute of the contest when they took a 2-0 lead.

With :33.1 left to play, Reinhart fouled out and with just :08.6 left, Conner fouled out. Freeman got the final basket of the season for Northwestern at the buzzer, but it wasn’t enough as the Vikettes eliminated Northwestern.

Deutsch had said at the start of the season that he felt this team had a lot of promise because they had developed such great chemistry, and were a fun group of players to be around. That, and the hard work that the team put in never changed, but they were unable to get past the quarterfinal round of districts.

“I feel like I left these girls down because they put in such hard work and were such a great group to work with. We have four seniors who I have become very fond of and who gave everything they had for this team, and I really wanted more for them,” said Deutsch.

“It’s hard to go out this way, and I told them that I could not be prouder of their effort all through the season.”

THE FINAL COUNT ... With Northwestern eliminated, Natalie Conner missed her shot to reach the 1,000-point milestone as a sophomore, something that has never been accomplished by a Northwestern player. She finished her sophomore season with 971 points in her two varsity seasons, scoring 517 points as a sophomore.

CENTRAL CATHOLIC

Roberts 1-6-6-8, Spinosa 1-0-0-2, Kofroth 0-0-0-0, Seagreaves 3-9-14-15, Taylor 2-5-12-9, Hursh 3-0-0-9, Menecola 1-1-2-3. TOTALS: 11-21-34-46.

NORTHWESTERN

Bernhard 0-0-0-0, C. Gober 0-2-2-2, Freeman 4-0-0-11, H. Gober 2-1-2-5, N. Conner 5-4-6-15, M. Conner 2-1-2-6, Leh 0-0-0-0, Reinhart 1-0-0-3. TOTALS: 14-8-12-42.

Central Catholic 12 2 11 21 - 46

Northwestern 17 9 10 6 - 42

Three-pointers: Central Catholic - Hursh 3; Northwestern - Freeman 3, N. Conner 1, M. Conner 1, Reinhart 1.

Records: Central Catholic (12-12); Northwestern (21-5).