Some weak foul shooting nearly slayed the Dragons. Lewisburg was 0-for-5 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter until Maddie Still and Sydney Bolinski were able to hit on four straight down the stretch to put away the game and gain a 29-26 win over Northwestern Lehigh in the PIAA play-in game for states Tuesday night at Northwestern Lehigh High School.

“We did everything right,” said Northwester head coach Chris Deutsch after the loss. “The shot just didn’t go for us. We had a few of those tonight, but the girls can’t let this game be the memory that they take away from this season because it was a phenomenal year.”

Lewisburg (18-8) opened an 8-4 lead on a basket by Bolinski with 1:58 left in the opening quarter, but at the other end, Northwestern senior Paige Sevrain pulled down an offensive rebound and went right back up with a shot to make it a two-point game at the end of the first quarter.

With 4:54 left in the second quarter and Lewisburg up by one, Sevrain gave Northwestern (26-3) their first lead of the night with a little jumper from the paint to make it 10-9. On the trip back down the court, Sophie Kilbride hit a jumper and less than a minute later, Bolinski got nothing but net on a three-pointer to again stretch the lead to four at 14-10 in favor of the Lady Dragons. Sophomore Cara Thomas scored the next two baskets for Northwestern to tie the game before Bolinski hit a pair of free throws to give Lewisburg a 16-14 halftime edge.

“We felt pretty good about how the first half went,” said Deutsch. “We figured it was going to be a close game and that the defenses would play a big part in it.”

Still drove the lane for a basket and picked up a foul just over a minute into the third quarter to make it 18-16 before she drained the freebie to put Lewisburg up by three.

The 5’ 3” Kilbride, Lewisburg’s leading scorer this season, worked the baseline and put up a shot to give the Dragons their biggest lead up to that point at 21-16 with 5:20 left in the third quarter. Sevrain cut it to three, but Maddy Moyers buried two free throws to push Lewisburg to another five-point advantage at 23-18 at the end of the third.

With the quickness of the Dragons defense making it difficult to work down low, Northwestern went to the outside and Thomas hit a three-pointer to cut into the lead. Keeley Baker hit from close range for Lewisburg and Brook Balliet dropped in two free throws to make it 25-23 with 3:32 left in the game.

Northwestern was unable to pull any closer and had to resort to fouls to give themselves a shot at advancing to states. Still hit two from the line and with just :23 left, Bolinski also hit two to make it 29-23, the largest margin of the game.

With just :04 left in regulation, Riley McGinley hit a three to keep the Lady Tigers alive with the score at 29-26. Kilbride failed to put the game away when she missed two free throws and after a timeout, McGinley heaved the ball to the far side of the court where Sevrain caught it and sent it quickly over to Bissell, who had an opening for the winning shot.

The last-second play set up by Northwestern Lehigh (26-3) coach Chris Deutsch was executed perfectly and looked like it would send an already exciting game into overtime. In the end, the three-point shot launched by Paige Bissell wound up just shy of the basket and Lewisburg’s Teagan Osunde grabbed the rebound and held on tightly as the horn sounded to end the Lady Tigers season with a 29-26 toss to the Green Dragons (18-8).

Sevrain led all scorers with 10 points while Bolinski led Lewisburg with nine.

“If you had told me that we would hold them to just 29 points, I would have thought we would win,” said Deutsch. “Our defense has been a big part of our game this season and we played well again tonight we just couldn’t get some shots to go. You have to hand it to them too, because they played really well and did a good job on us defensively.”

Northwestern Lehigh produced plenty of excitement this season. The Tigers’ 26 wins are the most ever for the program and their 24-game winning streak was also the longest in team history. They set another record by winning their third straight Colonial League championship. Paige Sevrain reached the 1,000-point mark and went on to score 258 more points to become the program’s all-time leading scorer. She reached both milestones off assists from Cara Thomas, and both came against Blue Mountain High School.

Northwestern says adios to four senior players. Maci Fisher, Gabby Gober, Nina Miller, and the program’s all-time leading scorer, Sevrain, all graduate. Sevrain finished with 1,258 career points, finishing 12 ahead of Sara Jones from the Class of 2006.