Chris Heery wanted a win.

He wanted another game, another opportunity to coach his Northern Lehigh girls basketball team this season.

The Bulldogs have given Heery plenty to be proud of - and look forward to.

A season that saw the program take another big step forward ended Friday when Northern Lehigh fell to Line Mountain 56-50 in the first round of the PIAA Class 2A girls basketball tournament.

But the culture the Bulldogs have created isn’t going anywhere.

“If you would have said in the beginning of the season that we would be in the state playoffs, I don’t know that I would have believed you,” said Heery, in his second year leading the program. “The progress they’ve made, some of the younger players coming through, and we also had some great help from our senior (starter) Cadence Peters. She was fantastic.”

Northern Lehigh (15-12) led 16-15 after the first quarter against the Eagles. The game remained close through the second period and was tied at 23-23 with 1:57 to play before Line Mountain surged ahead to a 30-23 halftime advantage.

“Tonight, they hurt us on the boards,” said Heery. “We gave them too many second chances; the offensive rebounds were tough on us. We turned them over a lot, but they scored 20 points in transition. In the beginning of the game we talked about winning the battle on the board and win the transition game, and we kind of didn’t win either one of those.

“But we were down by 15 in the third quarter and came back to take the lead by three (in the fourth quarter), so that’s a heck of a battle in the second half.”

It was a Heery timeout that helped the team reset and led to a run that helped the Bulldogs make it 44-38 at the end of the third quarter.

“We said that we’re not trying to get three-pointers every time down, let’s just chip away at it,” Heery said of the timeout. “We scored on maybe the next four straight possessions, got it down to single digits and then before the end of the third quarter we got it down to six. We did a really good job keeping our composure, not letting the moment get too big for us.

“It was a wild crowd there. The other team had a real nice fan base and they were very active and loud. And it was fun. We didn’t give up.”

The team kept its poise in a big playoff atmosphere, something that has been on display throughout this run, which also included a berth in the Colonial League playoffs, and helped the squad return to the state playoffs for the first time since 2011.

“The key about going as far as we did this year is that it’s been a long time since they were there, and none of these kids know what a big game like that is (like),” said Heery. “And now they have experience with it. Last year we went to Martz Hall in the first round and got knocked off by Pine Grove. Now this year, we got back up to Martz Hall and we got a win up there (against Minersville). And now we got into states.

“Those experiences are really big for the program moving forward.”

Line Mountain (14-12), in the state playoffs for the first time since 2012, rallied down the stretch in the fourth quarter to erase the three-point deficit in the final minutes and secure the win.

“We have trouble at the end of games when we’re ahead holding onto the ball – we shoot so quick,” said Heery. “So that experience, they’ll get better at that.”

STANDOUT SENIOR

... Heery praised Peters, who played another stellar defensive game and continued to showcase her versatility for the Bulldogs. “She picked up another charge. She’s picked up a charge in almost every game this season, which is incredible,” said Heery. “She’s our anchor out there. She’ll play a couple different positions even though she’s a post player. I’ll have her in the middle, I’ll have her in the back in the 1-3-1. Whatever I ask her to do, she does. She really did a great job for us tonight.”

WHAT A RUN

... “We were thankful to be here,” said Heery. “We had a great season and we were really appreciative of all the support that the community gave us. There were signs all over, they came out to meet us on the bus, that stuff was really great, and it was a great experience to be apart of, and something that we can build on.”

LEADING SCORERS ... Katelynn Barthold and Aubrey Pollard each scored 13 points for the Bulldogs, while Dekota Barthold added 11.

NORTHERN LEHIGH

Moffit 0-0-0-0, Whalen 2-1-2-7, K. Barthold 5-1-2-13, Pollard 6-1-2-13, Bosch 1-0-0-2, D. Barthold 4-2-2-11, Peters 1-0-0-2, Snyder 1-0-0-2. TOTALS: 20-5-8-50.

LINE MOUNTAIN

Stiely 0-0-0-0, Klinger 2-6-10-10, Coller 0-0-0-0, Barwick 6-0-0-12, Masser 1-0-0-3, Ruohoniemi 4-0-2-8, Brown 0-0-0-0, Michael 5-2-3-12, Buriak 1-0-0-2, Spieles 2-5-6-9. TOTALS: 21-13-21-56.

No. Lehigh 16 7 15 12 - 50

Line Mtn. 15 15 14 12 - 56

Three-pointers: NL - Whalen 2, K. Barthold 2, D. Barthold 1; LM - Masser 1.