After winning its first two Colonial League playoff games by an average of 34 points, it appeared that Northwestern would steamroll its way to a fourth consecutive league championship.

The only thing standing in its way was a matchup with Notre Dame of Green Pond, a team that the Tigers had defeated by 20 points during the regular season.

What the Tigers didn’t count on was an uncharacteristically slow start and a high number of turnovers that put them down early. The championship game went to overtime and the Crusaders pulled off a 58-53 upset over Northwestern Lehigh.

Northwestern fell behind by five midway through the first quarter but seemed to turn things around from that point as it went on a 10-0 run to take a 17-12 lead in the final minute of the quarter, and were ahead 17-15 after the first quarter.

The Crusaders took a 23-20 lead early in the second quarter.

With 2:42 left before halftime, Northwestern senior Cara Thomas drove the lane picked up the basket and the foul for Northwestern to tie the game at 23. Notre Dame wasn’t quite done as Ava Shonk hit a pair of threes to give the Crusaders a 29-23 edge with 1:16 left in the first half. Northwestern uncharacteristically turned the ball over 11 times in the first quarter leading to five points for the Crusaders.

“I didn’t think we did a good job against them defensively,” said Northwestern head coach Chris Deutsch. “They hit a lot of threes and then we had the turnovers and put ourselves down early. We had trouble getting defensive stops when we needed them and they did a good job in those situations.”

With Notre Dame up by five with 5:57 left in the third quarter Emily Lessig was fouled on her way through the paint and got the basket and a foul to stretch the Crusader lead to 37-29. The teams would trade points for the rest of the quarter with the Crusaders getting a late basket on a layup from Ava Hobbie to push their lead back to eight at 40-32 going into the final quarter.

After just two turnovers in the first half, Notre Dame (20-5) turned the ball over five times in the third quarter and eight times in the final period, leading to six points off of those turnovers for Northwestern helping them to work their way back.

Brook Balliet hit a jumper with 5:57 left to play and as Notre Dame looked to work its way back down the court, Balliet stole the ball and turned it into a layup to cut the deficit to three.

Balliet later hit one of two shots from the foul line and with 1:02 left, Paige Bissell scored to close the gap to 46-44 in favor of the Crusaders.

Notre Dame’s Riley Boyle went one-for-two from the line and with just :13 left in regulation Emma Freeman calmly took a step back from a defender on the left side of the arc and got nothing but net for a game tying three-pointer sending the game into overtime at 47-47.

Northwestern (22-3) lost Thomas with 4:16 left in regulation when she was called for her fifth foul in the game.

“Even after we fell behind, we pulled ourselves together and fought our way back and I’m proud of the girls for doing that,” said Deutsch. “It definitely hurt when we lost Cara because she does a lot for us on both ends of the court, but we fought back.”

Shonk, a junior, took over the game in overtime for Notre Dame, scoring six points in the first 2:12 to stake the Crusaders to a 55-47 lead as part of an 8-0 run. Freeman dropped in another three to cut the deficit to five at 55-50 with 1:37 left.

The Tigers later moved to within four on a three-pointer by freshman Natalie Conner but could not cut the lead any further.

“In that overtime, they made the shots and we didn’t and that was the difference,” said Deutsch. “We play next Saturday, so we just have to regroup and come back stronger in districts.”

Fortunately for Northwestern Lehigh, Schuylkill Haven downed North Schuylkill in the Schuylkill League final which allowed Northwestern to maintain its spot at the top of the rankings in the District 11 4A classification. That set up a meeting against eighth seeded Blue Mountain in the opening round of districts.

A quarterfinal win would guarantee the Tigers two more games since three teams from District 11 4A will qualify for the state tournament. Northwestern and Blue Mountain will tip-off Saturday afternoon at 2:30 at Lehighton High School in the quarterfinal matchup.