Good teams find ways to win — even when they don’t play at the top of their game.

Top-seeded Northwestern struggled in the first and third quarters on Saturday afternoon, but held on for a 34-28 win over eighth-seeded Blue Mountain in a District 11 Class 4A quarterfinal game at Lehighton.

Both teams had trouble putting the ball in the basket.

In the first period, the Tigers shot 24 percent, scoring just eight points while the Eagles managed only 19 percent. But Cameron Campbell’s six points, including her driving layup with 30 seconds left in the first period, gave Blue Mountain a 9-8 lead.

Northwestern also committed six turnovers in the first eight minutes.

Tigers’ coach Chris Deutsch never called a timeout to settle his team.

“Calling a timeout that early in the game shows our players there is panic in me, and panic in me transfers to panic in them,” said Deutsch. “It’s their game, not mine. It’s better they play through it.”

And play through it they did with better performance in the second period that resulted in a 10-point lead at the half.

Senior Cara Thomas sparked the Tigers by scoring seven of her team’s 14 second-quarter points.

With 30 seconds gone by, her three-pointer beyond the key lifted the Tigers into an 11-9 lead. A layup at 4:55 lengthened the margin to six points at 15-9, and her driving layup at the 1:45 mark increased the margin to 22-9.

Adding to the Tigers’ second-period scoring was a left-handed hook basket and a jump shot banker by Paige Bissell, along with a bucket by Natalie Conner.

Northwestern’s defense stifled the Eagles’ offense completely in the period. The designated visiting team missed all seven shots, turned the ball over six times and scored only one point on a free throw by Kelly Canfield.

Blue Mountain came roaring back after the intermission and erased the 10-point deficit to take the lead after a 17-4 rally.

Ruby Henninger led the comeback, as she scored eight consecutive points on two triples and a bank shot, giving the Eagles a 27-26 advantage going into the final period.

With the score tied at 28 and just over five minutes remaining, Thomas sank a free throw for the Tigers — who then would score the final six points to secure the victory. And for the second time in the game, the Eagles were held to zero points from the floor.

At the halfway point of the period, Deutsch called three timeouts.

“I felt that the first timeout when we were ahead by three points was just to have them keep their composure,” he said. “The next two were to keep ball possession, take no shots unless it would be an easy layup and then make Blue Mountain have to foul us.”

His strategy worked to perfection and guaranteed that the Tigers would advance to the District semifinals.

“This was a sloppy game by both teams,” said Deutsch. “Blue Mountain played great defense against us as we did against them, but I was happy that we rebounded from a tough loss in the league tournament finals.

“We found a way to move on, and now we get ready to play every game that will determine the outcome of our season.”

Northwestern’s Cara Thomas led all scorers with 18 points.

ODD AND EVEN … The game lacked any sort of flow. Neither team could put away the other, but the score was even only once at 28 in the final period. An oddity was evident in Blue Mountain’s period-by-period scoring. After the Eagles tallied nine points that gave them the lead after the first, they scored just one in the second, 17 in the third and only one again in the final eight minutes.

UP NEXT … Northwestern advances to play Central Catholic, a 45-31 winner over Tamaqua, at Northern Lehigh High School on Wednesday at 7 p.m. The winner of that game will play the winner of the Palmerton-North Schuylkill game for the District 11 championship at a time and site to be determined.

BLUE MOUNTAIN

Henninger 3-0-0-8, Peel 3-0-1-6, Campbell 3-0-1-6, Keck 1-1-2-4, Fleagle 1-0-0-3, Canfield 0-1-2-1, Pace 0-0-0-0, Leonard 0-0-0-0. Fishburn 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 11-2-6-28.

NORTHWESTERN

THOMAS 7-3-4-18, Reinhart 3-2-3-8, Bissell 2-1-1-5, N. Conner 1-0-0-2, Freeman 0-1-2-1, Balliet 0-0-0-0, M. Conner 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 13-7-10-34.

Blue Mountain 9 1 17 1 - 28

Northwestern 8 14 4 8 - 34

Three- pointers: Blue Mountain - Henninger 2, Fleagle 1, Keck 1; Northwestern - Thomas 1.

Records: Blue Mountain (9-14); Northwestern (23-3).