Brook Balliet may not lead Northwestern in scoring, but she does all of the things that a coach wants a senior player to do.

Her defense is strong. She refuses to get rattled, and when she has her openings, she takes them. North Schuylkill gave Balliet too much room to operate in the District 11 4A consolation game and the senior had her shot dialed in as she hit five three-pointers in the game to help the Lady Tigers to a 51-34 win over the Spartans.

Balliet did much of her damage in the first six minutes when she nailed three shots from beyond the arc for an early 17-6 advantage. In all, Northwestern players hit eight shots from beyond the arc in the win.

The early lead failed to hold up and a rash of turnovers by Northwestern allowed North Schuylkill, who eliminated Northwestern in last year’s district consolation game, to move to within a point with a 20-19 halftime score.

After paying much more attention to Balliet throughout the second quarter, the Spartans again focused on freshman Natalie Conner, who leads Northwestern in three-point shooting this season. Balliet again used that to her advantage and hit on two more from beyond the arc in the third quarter as Northwestern again stretched their lead to double digits at 41-31.

North Schuylkill was the team that just would not go away though as they continued to fight to keep their season alive. The Spartans chipped away until their 10 point deficit shrunk to three with the score at 32-29 late in the third quarter.

Coach Chris Deutsch had challenged his players following their semifinal loss to Allentown Central Catholic, asking which of them wanted to keep playing and if any of them would prefer to start preparing for the spring sports season. With North Schuylkill not collapsing, the Northwestern players showed that even though the weather is getting warmer, and spring practices were just a few days away from beginning, they were not done playing basketball.

Emma Freeman and Natalie Conner delayed their arrival at softball camp by hitting on three-pointers and the Northwestern defense reverted to being the overpowering force it has been throughout the season.

With a 46-32 advantage late in the game, Northwestern was able to lock up the third and final spot out of District 11 for a chance to compete for a state championship in the PIAA tournament.

To get to states, the Tigers were led by Balliet’s 15 points while fellow senior Cara Thomas scored 14 and Conner contributed 11 points in the win.

States are getting underway this weekend and the route for the Lady Tigers is a tough one.

It starts with a trip to Philadelphia on Saturday where they will face Neumann-Goretti, the runner-up team from the highly competitive District 12.