When teams enter the unknown of the state playoffs, they don’t change the way they play.

Instead, they rely on doing the things that got them there.

Unfortunately for the Lady Bombers, those weren’t enough, as on Saturday afternoon, Palmerton residents gathered to watch their girls basketball team take on Valley View in the opening round of the PIAA Class 4A basketball playoffs. After a tight and highly contested battle, it was the Cougars who squeaked out a 39-34 victory and put an end to the Bombers’ season.

As the runner-up in each of their districts, both teams looked to avenge their district defeats with a chance at a state title one round at a time.

The game started positive for Valley View as it pushed the pace early and reeled off a 9-4 run in the first quarter. The Bombers kept it close thanks to a nine-point period from senior Mikayla Pengelly, and only trailed 13-11 after the first.

Quarter No. 2 saw the Bombers catch fire and burn the Cougars in transition. An 11-2 Bomber run that included two three-pointers from Hailey Barry sent Palmerton into halftime leading 22-17 as it held the Cougars to only four points in the frame.

Valley View head coach Rob Martin knew that his team needed to change its offensive approach if it was going to come back.

“We got four shots off in the second quarter and we told the kids at halftime, ‘We have to start attacking the basket more,’” he said. “We weren’t moving the ball, and we weren’t getting open looks. We were a little stagnant, and we just wanted to move the ball more and start attacking the basket.”

As if a light switch was flipped, the third quarter saw the Cougars take advantage of battles in the paint.

On one side of the court, Valley View consistently used double coverage under the basket on Courtney Connell to limit her offense. On the other side, Sadie Cardoni found space in the paint, and tallied back-to-back baskets to start off an 8-2 Cougar run and outscore Palmerton 13-5 in the third stanza.

This battle in the paint proved to be a major momentum shift as the Bombers went cold offensively, with Connell being held to just three points.

While Connell did finish with 12 rebounds, Cardoni ended with 10 caroms (including six offensive) and eight points to give Valley View an in-tight advantage.

“Anytime (Connell) got the ball, they kind of just swarmed all over her,” said Bombers’ coach Jeremy Coleman. “They really wanted to take her out of the game, and they seemed to be pretty effective in doing so. We weren’t able to get her the ball as much as we normally would have liked to.”

“I texted Sadie (Cardoni) this morning and I told her she’s going to be the difference if we win this game,” said coach Martin about Cardoni’s performance. “She really showed up for us today. She had a big task today defensively and she stepped up, and she’s a huge reason we’re in the position we’re in right now.”

With the Bombers trailing 30-27 after the third, Pengelly was not willing to let her final season end quietly. Another seven points from her allowed Palmerton to keep pace with Valley View and set up a chance to tie the game at 37 in the final seconds. But, the Bombers turned the ball over, and two final free throws sealed the game and the season for Palmerton.

In her final high school game, Pengelly finished with 21 points to lead all scorers, but it wasn’t enough to overcome her team’s offensive struggles and poor 2-for-8 showing at the free throw line.

With their year over, coach Coleman is already looking forward to next season and the expectations he has for next year’s team.

“We do have the core group coming back,” he said. “We have some other players that got some time for us as well. We’re looking forward to them stepping up next year. We’ll be back at it in the summertime, and we’ll work hard and we’ll get some of those players up to speed. Right now, we just want to enjoy the season that we had. It’s been a long season. It’s been a grind.”

ONE LAST TIME … Palmerton will lose two seniors to graduation as both Pengelly and Ella Baumgardt played their final game as Blue Bombers.

UP NEXT ... Valley View advances to the second round, where it will play District 12 champion Audenried Charter on Wednesday at Easton Middle School.

VALLEY VIEW

Minelli 0-0-0-0, Castellani 1-5-6-8, Costa 4-0-0-8, Pegula 0-0-0-0, Gazoo 4-1-3-9, Palickar 1-0-0-2, Ashby 2-0-0-4, Cardoni 4-0-0-8. TOTALS: 16-6-9-39.

PALMERTON

Pengelly 9-1-1-21, Baumgardt 1-0-3-2, Schneider 0-0-0-0, Morgan 1-0-0-2, Green 0-0-0-0, Barry 2-0-0-6, Connell 1-1-4-3. TOTALS: 14-2-8-34.

Valley View 13 4 13 9 - 39

Palmerton 11 11 5 7 - 34

Three-Pointers: Valley View - Castellani 1; Palmerton - Pengelly 2, Barry 2.

Records: Valley View (21-5); Palmerton (21-7).