WHITEHALL - Central Catholic might have gotten into the district playoffs with a losing record, but the Vikettes are making the most of their opportunity.

The No. 3 seed in the District 11 Class 4A bracket came into the tournament at 8-14 overall this season, but Central is 2-0 in the postseason after beating No. 2 seed Northwestern 31-28 Wednesday night at Whitehall High School."It wasn't pretty, but at this time of year you win and move on," said Central Catholic head coach Mike Kopp. "Now we have a chance to play in the district championship, and have one game in states."In a game where neither team could find a rhythm on offense, the Vikettes (10-14) won it on a buzzer-beating three-pointer from Diana Kocsis.Abby Chisdak hit a three-pointer with 1:10 left in the fourth quarter to give Northwestern its first lead of the second half at 28-27. But a foul called away from the ball with just under a minute to play gave Central a chance to take the lead.Margaux Eripret hit the first free throw to tie the game, but missed the second. A tie-up on the rebound awarded the ball to the Vikes. They maintained possession for the final 52 seconds and Koscis launched a three-pointer at the buzzer to put her team in Friday's title game against Bethlehem Catholic."I thought our effort was tremendous, especially on the defensive end," said Northwestern head coach Chris Deutsch. "The difference was they hit a three-pointer at the end of the first half and the hit a three-pointer at the end."The Tigers (16-9) had trouble getting the ball inside to Leighanna Lister, who got off just three shots in the game, making both her first-half attempts and finishing with six points."They're very physical and aggressive," said Deutsch. "We knew they were going to do everything to prevent us from getting the ball inside."I didn't think offensively we did a good job executing. Part of that is Central's defense and part of it is we did not do a good enough job in the half-court execution.""I think defensively," said Kopp, "we put enough pressure on the ball that they couldn't get the ball inside as often as they want to."The Tigers also played a frustrating defense that held the Vikettes to 9-for-32 shooting from the field."That was a crazy game," said Kopp, whose team went 10-for-24 from the foul line. "They're so physical and they bang around, and I knew that was going to be the case. I was hoping we could run our stuff but they took us out of the stuff we wanted to run. We couldn't get into an offensive flow at all."FOUL TROUBLE ... Both teams were missing their strongest presence under the basket at times in the second half. Northwestern's Lister went to the bench for just over two minutes after picking up her third foul midway through the third quarter. Central's Dana Roberts came out for the final two minutes of the third quarter and the first minute of the fourth quarter with four fouls. The team's only senior starter played the last seven minutes without picking up her fifth foul.BEATING BUZZERS ... Not only did the Vikettes win the game on a last-second shot, but they also took a halftime lead when Morgan Dietz hit a three-pointer with no time left to erase the Tigers' first lead of the game and put her team ahead 11-9 at the break.PITCHERS' DUEL ... The low-scoring affair saw no double digit scorers. Jess Davis and Eripret led Central Catholic with eight points each. Northwestern had three players with six points apiece in Chisdak, Gabby Sevrain and Sage Christopher.MOVING ON ... Central earned a state playoff berth with the win. The Tigers' season ends with the loss. The team graduates just one senior, Paige Stitzel, from this year's roster and will return it's starting five next season.CENTRAL CATHOLICArevelo 1-0-1-2, Davis 2-3-7-8, Eripret 2-4-8-8, Smzigel 0-0-0-0, Kocsis 1-2-2-5, Roberts 2-1-4-5, Dietz 1-0-2-3. TOTALS: 9-10-24-31.NORTHWESTERNStitzel 0-0-0-0, Lister 2-1-2-5, Chisdak 2-1-2-6, G. Sevrain 3-0-0-6, S. Sevrain 0-0-0-0, Williamson 1-3-5-5, Christopher 1-4-4-6. TOTALS: 9-9-13-28.Central Catholic 4 7 8 12 - 31Northwestern 3 6 7 12 - 28Three-pointers: CC - Davis 1, Kocsis 1, Dietz 1; N - Chisdak 1.