To kickoff District XI championship week, the Notre Dame Lady Crusaders took on the Palmerton Blue Bombers at the PPL Center on Monday, March 9th. While the Crusaders entered the game as the first seed and the Bombers entered as the second, Notre Dame was seeking revenge from the Colonial League Playoffs where they suffered defeat from the Bombers. The Crusaders were coming off of a win over Pine Grove while Palmerton defeated Palisades to punch their tickets into the championship game. Anticipation was high prior to the game starting, and it continued to heightened under the supervision of hundreds of socially distanced, amped up fans.
The district championship game started off very slow because the score was tied 3-3 only five minutes into the game. The Blue Bombers started to pull away ever so slightly as they went up 10-5 at the end of the first quarter. This was due to the fact that Palmerton started off very aggressively on the offensive side of the ball and were collecting offensive rebounds.
Notre Dame kicked off the second quarter with a BANG and went on a 5-0 run which later turned into a 16-2 run. This was a result of Rutgers commit Antonia Bates, starting to take charge of her very talented offense. Notre Dame led the Blue Bombers going into halftime 21 to 18.
After halftime the Crusaders switched from a one on one defense to a 2-3 zone, which allowed Notre Dame to increase their already sizable lead. Palmerton simply could not get past this strategic defensive change. While the Bombers were trying to gather themselves, Raegan Cooper of Notre Dame went on a hot streak from beyond the arch. Cooper went on to score five, three pointers and had a team high of 20 points as the Crusaders went on to defeat Palmerton. The final score was 48-35 and Notre Dame captured the District XI 3A Championship.
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