ORWIGSBURG — If you want to talk about grit and grind, look no further than the Palmerton girls basketball team.

The Bombers showed just how tough and resilient they are Wednesday night at Blue Mountain, as they overcame a strong defensive North Schuylkill team to pull out a stunning 47-39 overtime victory in the District 11 Class 4A semifinal.

When Colonial and Schuylkill League teams match up, it’s often a question of which style will win out: The more free and open style of the Colonial League, or the physical and scrappy play of the Schuylkill League.

This game was no different.

With both teams trading early runs, the first quarter ended with a 13-10 Spartan lead. However, the second period showcased the Schuylkill League style as both teams combined for only nine points in the quarter. Despite the Bombers’ unfamiliarity with the style of play and struggling to stick with their normal strategies, they welcomed the challenge with open arms and held strong defensively, holding North Schuylkill to only a 17-15 lead at halftime.

“Early on in the game, (North Schuylkill) had a tough zone,” said Palmerton head coach Jeremy Coleman. “They put some pressure on us. We can’t run some of our normal stuff, and we were struggling from the outside. We weren’t hitting shots, and I just told the girls, ‘Just keep shooting.’ We’ve been working on mental toughness all year long, and today, they stuck with it.”

Courtney Connell led the way for the Bombers, as she finished with a double-double, tallying 10 points and 16 rebounds, while also blocking four shots.

“I didn’t want to give up; I wanted to do the best I could,” she said. “We know this Schuylkill League team is very aggressive, so we were really excited to play a high pressure team and get a new environment involved.”

As the third quarter progressed, it became noticeable that North Schuylkill’s gritty and aggressive style of play was beginning to wear the Bombers down, as the Spartans took a six-point lead early in the fourth quarter.

Back-to-back three-pointers from Mikayla Pengelly and Cate Morgan tied the score at 31, only for North Schuylkill to regain a four-point lead with under a minute remaining. However, the Spartans missed three of their final four free throws, opening the door for Palmerton to tie the game trailing 36-33.

After the Spartans committed a foul at half court, it gave the Bombers 2.4 seconds remaining to set up a shot in Spartan territory. The result was Hailey Barry coming through with a buzzer-beating desperation three-pointer to tie the game at 36 and send it to overtime.

“In practice, I’m always shooting those shots from half court, from everywhere deep, and it just turns out this one went in and it was just a great time,” Barry said about her game-tying shot.

“That’s not something that we have ever practiced before,” said coach Coleman. “That was just, ‘Get the ball out to our shooters and make something happen,’ and I kept telling them, ‘Three seconds.’ Three seconds is a lot of time. They didn’t have to just catch, turn, and throw it up there. They had some time to take a dribble or two. And that’s what she did. And she got a good bounce.”

While Spartan head coach Rich Wetzel liked his team’s overall performance, he believed that a separate factor played a role in his team’s inability to lock the game down.

“If we make foul shots, we win the game; we win by seven points if we make free throws,” he said. “Then we fouled them and let them inbound the ball with a chance to set up a play. We played good enough defensively. We held them up to the low 30s until that final shot.”

From the start of OT, it was all Palmerton, as the Bombers dominated with an 11-0 run to pull away and overcome North Schuylkill’s style of play with a 47-39 comeback win. The Bombers now advance to the district championship game on Saturday with a chance to win their fifth district title in program history.

“I could not be more proud of every one of those girls,” said Coleman. “All the girls are team players. They don’t care who’s scoring. They just want to win. They kept fighting, and they took care of business in the end.”

FINAL SET … Palmerton will face Allentown Central Catholic at Easton on Saturday in the District 11 4A Girls Championship Game. Central Catholic defeated Northwestern Lehigh 51-41 in overtime in their semifinal matchup.

PALMERTON

Pengelly 5-0-0-12, Baumgardt 1-4-4-6, Schneider 0-0-0-0, Morgan 1-3-4-6, Barry 4-2-2-13, Connell 3-4-6-10. TOTALS: 14-13-16-47.

NORTH SCHUYLKILL

Selgrade 2-2-2-6, Conti 4-2-6-13, Monohan 0-0-2-0, Capone 1-0-0-3, Balicki 1-0-0-2, Stitzer 2-0-2-4, Kane 4-1-2-11. TOTALS: 14-5-14-39.

Palmerton 10 5 8 13 11 - 47

North Schuylkill 13 4 9 10 3 - 39

Three-Pointers: Palmerton - Barry 3, Pengelly 2, Morgan 1; North Schuylkill - Conti 3, Kane 2, Capone 1.

Records: Palmerton (21-5); North Schuylkill (19-7).