PEN ARGYL — Todd Oessenick had seen it before.

Just three days ago, actually.

The Pen Argyl girls basketball coach watched his team battle back to win its regular season finale against rival Bangor on Tuesday.

Oessenick saw the Green Knights do it again Friday night, this time turning back Northern Lehigh 69-62 in the Colonial League quarterfinals.

“We kind of learned from that,” Oessenick said of the Bangor game, a 59-55 win. “We had a lead in that game and they came back and went ahead by three. That experience helped us tonight. We were calm and composed when Northern Lehigh came back. We learned that lesson, and the freshmen learned that lesson. It was huge.”

The fourth-seeded Green Knights took command early, storming out to a 22-11 lead after the first quarter.

But the Bulldogs rallied, going on a sensational 15-0 run to open the second quarter to surge ahead 26-22. Tegan Simms scored 11 points during that span.

“She’s a great player. It’s hard to believe she’s only a sophomore,” Northern Lehigh coach Chris Heery said of Simms.

The run started a back-and-forth that carried on through the remainder of the contest. Pen Argyl responded with a 18-5 surge, with senior Julia Vargo scoring 12 of her game-high 36 points.

But it was Simms that had an answer, draining one of her four 3s at the buzzer to cut the Green Knights’ lead to 40-34 at halftime.

“We played zone all night, and we tried to make sure whoever was closest to her didn’t leave her,” Oessenick said of defending Simms, who scored 24 points. “We tried to make sure we didn’t give her threes. And we also knew we had to not let Katelynn (Barthold) dribble penetrate.

“We just had to make sure we weren’t leaving her (Simms). Because when she passes it away, it’s going to come back.”

Pen Argyl pushed the lead to 10 midway through the fourth quarter.

Northern Lehigh had another answer, this time with Dekota Barthold taking over, scoring eight points and pulling down four rebounds during a 12-3 that cut the deficit to 49-48 with 30.7 left in the third quarter.

Vargo responded with a driving basket in the lane with 1.6 left in the period and opened the fourth with another bucket.

The fifth-seeded Bulldogs stayed within striking distance, as Dekota Barthold came back with a 3 with make a three-point game at 54-51.

A 6-0 run gave momentum back to Pen Argyl. The Green Knights increased their lead to 10 at 64-54 on a basket by freshman Gianna Martini.

Simms hit her final three of the night to cut it to 66-60 with :43 to play. But Pen Argyl was able to seal it, as freshman Bella Whitman and Vargo hit free throws in the final 40 seconds to secure the win and a spot in the league semifinals.

“I was very proud of them. They never gave up,” said Heery. “They just continued to chip away.”

A quick start helped Pen Argyl gain confidence, with Vargo scoring 11 points in the first quarter and 23 in the first half.

“I think it helped,” Oessenick,” said of the quick start. “But I think they key is, when we can get her (Vargo) the ball in space, she can do a lot of things. Our recent games, we’ve been having trouble getting her in space because teams have been locking her down, and doubling her. They weren’t really doubling her, they were just keeping somebody near her. And if she gets a step, she’s as quick as anybody. So that was huge for us.

“But everyone did so many good things, with getting rebounds, fighting for loose balls. The girls all contributed, whether they played five minutes, three minutes, they all contributed. It was awesome.”

LEADING SCORERS ... Simms led the Bulldogs with 24 points, while Dekota Barthold netted 16 and Katelynn Barthold added 11. In addition to Vargo, Whitman also hit double figures with 10 points.

LAST TIME ... Northern Lehigh won the only regular season meeting between the teams, 68-36 on Dec. 13. Vargo scored 27 points in that contest, while Katelynn Barthold led the Bulldogs with 29 and Simms scored 27.

MOVING ON ... Pen Argyl will play top seed Northwestern Monday in the semifinals at a location and time to be determined. Northern Lehigh will prepare for the District 11 Class 3A tournament. “Any time you’re in the postseason you never know what’s going to happen and you never know how many games you’re going to have left,” said Heery. “This experience is why you play so hard. I’m so proud of 15 wins in the regular season, especially when we started 0-3, to finish with 15 wins is fantastic.”

NORTHERN LEHIGH

Tosh 0-0-0-0, Williams 3-0-0-6, K. Barthold 4-2-4-11, Ramos 0-0-0-0, D. Barthold 6-2-3-16, Simms 10-0-0-24, Snyder 1-3-6-5. TOTALS: 24-7-13-62.

PEN ARGYL

Cunningham 0-0-0-0, Martini 3-0-0-7, Whitman 3-3-4-10, Wilgus 2-4-7-8, Vargo 13-8-14-36, Scherer 1-0-0-2, Gloth 0-0-0-0, Weaver 2-0-0-4, Oessenick 1-0-2-2. TOTALS: 25-15-27-69.

N. Lehigh 11 23 14 14 - 62

Pen Argyl 22 18 12 17 - 69

Three-pointers: Northern Lehigh - Simms 4, D. Barthold 2, K. Barthold 1. Pen Argyl - Vargo 2, Whitman 1, Martini 1.

Records: Northern Lehigh (15-8); Pen Argyl (16-7)