EASTON — If anyone ever tells you that foul shooting is not a big part of winning a basketball game, refer them to the box score below.

Allentown Central Catholic not only got to the line 29 times against Northwestern Lehigh, but the Vikings also made 24 of those shots on their way to a 68-57 win over the Tigers in Friday night’s District 11 4A boys basketball final at Easton Middle School.

The game was physical nearly from the start.

In the first quarter, Central Catholic’s Jahrel Vigo, who is listed as 6-2, banged into Northwestern’s 5-8 Eli Zimmerman, who has never been known to stand down from a challenge. A little pushing ensued as the referees quickly stepped in and talked to both players hoping to calm things down. Both players seemed satisfied, but the tone had been set.

The Vikings (22-4) got a pair of late baskets, the second one by Vigo at the buzzer from beyond the arc, to cut Northwestern’s lead to 15-12.

Central Catholic tied the game on another three-pointer from Vigo, who finished the game with 38 points, with 5:51 left in the second quarter. From that point, an 11-1 run sent the Vikings out to a commanding 28-18 lead in the final minute before halftime. The best the Tigers (24-3) could do was a three-pointer from Brady Zimmerman to cut the lead to seven going into the break.

Things got a little more out of hand in the third quarter when Central Catholic’s Yariel Gonzalez drove the lane for a layup to make it 34-25 but was then called for a technical that gave Northwestern two foul shots and the ball.

Gavin Nelson sank both of the shots from the line and Brady Krimmel added to the advantage when he hit a three-pointer to cut Central’s edge to 34-30 with 5:20 left in the third quarter. From there the Tigers got just four foul shots over the rest of the quarter while the Vikings went on a 10-4 run to make it a 44-34 game at the end of three quarters.

“We expected what went on tonight,” said Northwestern head coach Patrick Wanamaker. “Two really good basketball teams, two really physical basketball teams and sometimes that physicality blurred the line a little, but it’s a high-emotion game and they are all high-emotion kids. Everything they did tonight was what we expected them to do, and they just executed a little better than we did down the stretch.”

Krimmel opened the final quarter with his second three-pointer of the game and on the ensuing trip down the court Zimmerman was called for an intentional foul and both he and Central Catholic’s Tom Roth were given technical fouls. From that point on the Vikings went into automatic mode and were hitting from all over the court while the Tigers struggled to get shots to drop. Central went 9-for-10 from the foul line over the last 1:41 of the game to put away the win for their 23rd District 11 championship.

Even with the loss, Northwestern will advance to the PIAA tournament that gets underway next week, and Wanamaker doesn’t expect any hangover from the loss in the district finals.

“Whenever they have an opportunity to compete, they’re going to do that,” he said. “We’re at a point where we’re playing for our season, so we’re going to add that extra motivation and we’re going to prepare all week and we’re going to keep playing basketball. This is a really special group of kids so I want to keep them around as long as I can.”

NEXT UP… Northwestern will host the number two team from District 2, which will be either Scranton Prep (18-6) or Valley View (19-5), in the opening round of states next Friday night. The District 2 championship game is Saturday afternoon.

CENTRAL CATHOLIC

Isbell 1-0-0-2, Baxter 0-0-0-0, Gonzalez 5-1-3-11, Leak 1-3-4-5, Ford 1-0-0-2, Roth 0-0-0-0, Vigo 12-12-14-38, Mushrush 1-8-8-10, Rader 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 21-24-29-68

NORTHWESTERN

Krimmel 2-2-2-8, Bollinger 1-1-2-3, E. Zimmerman 3-2-4-10, Wambold 0-0-0-0, Fitch 1-1-1-4, B. Zimmerman 1-0-0-3, Nelson 6-7-10-19, Marth 5-0-0-10, TEAM 19-13-19-57

Central Cath. 12 16 16 24 - 68

N’western 15 6 13 23 - 57

Three-pointers: Central Catholic - Vigo 2; Northwestern - Krimmel 2, E. Zimmerman 2, Fitch 1, B. Zimmerman 1.