It was about the most heartbreaking way a season could come to an end.

With Northwestern and Central Catholic tied last week and the final seconds of their District 11 Class 4A semifinal winding down, the Vikettes Diana Kocsis launched a last-second three-pointer that found its way through the basket to give her a team a 31-28 win.

The victory extended Central Catholic’s season into the district title game and the state playoffs, while the Tigers’ season came to an end with the loss.

“I just told [the players] how proud of them I was,” said Northwestern head coach Chris Deutsch. “The effort was tremendous all year long.

“I feel bad for our one senior (Paige Stitzel) because this is her last game and she sacrificed this year. She was such a positive influence on our younger girls.”

Central, the No. 3 seed in districts, came into the tournament at 8-14 overall this season, but Central was 2-0 after the win over Northwestern last Wednesday night at Whitehall High School.

“It wasn’t pretty, but at this time of year you win and move on,” said Central Catholic head coach Mike Kopp.

The game was close the whole way, but Central led for most of the contest.

The Tigers’ Abby Chisdak hit a three-pointer with 1:10 left in the fourth quarter to give her team its first lead of the second half at 28-27. But a foul called away from the ball with just under a minute to play gave Central a chance to take the lead.

Margaux Eripret hit the first free throw to tie the game, but missed the second. A tie-up on the rebound awarded the ball to the Vikes by virtue of the possession arrow. They maintained possession for the final 52 seconds and Koscis launched a three-pointer at the buzzer.

“I thought our effort was tremendous, especially on the defensive end,” said Deutsch. “The difference was they hit a three-pointer at the end of the first half and the hit a three-pointer at the end.”

The Tigers (16-9) had trouble getting the ball inside to Leighanna Lister, who got off just three shots in the game, making both her first-half attempts and finishing with six points.

“They’re very physical and aggressive,” said Deutsch. “We knew they were going to do everything to prevent us from getting the ball inside.

“I didn’t think offensively we did a good job executing. Part of that is Central’s defense and part of it is we did not do a good enough job in the half-court execution.”

“I think defensively,” said Kopp, “we put enough pressure on the ball that they couldn’t get the ball inside as often as they want to.”

The Tigers also played a frustrating defense that held the Vikettes to 9-for-32 shooting from the field.

“That was a crazy game,” said Kopp, whose team went 10-for-24 from the foul line. “They’re so physical and they bang around, and I knew that was going to be the case. I was hoping we could run our stuff but they took us out of the stuff we wanted to run. We couldn’t get into an offensive flow at all.”

Not only did the Vikettes win the game on a last-second shot, but they also took a halftime lead when Morgan Dietz hit a three-pointer with no time left to erase the Tigers’ first lead of the game and put her team ahead 11-9 at the break.

The low-scoring affair saw no double digit scorers. Jess Davis and Eripret led Central Catholic with eight points each. Northwestern had three players with six points apiece in Chisdak, Gabby Sevrain and Sage Christopher.

Central went on to take second place in the district, falling to top-seeded Bethlehem Catholic in the championship game.

The Tigers will graduate just one senior from this year’s team in Paige Stitzel, who gave up cross country season to take care of an injury and get ready for her final basketball season.

The team’s starting five of juniors Lister, Chisdak, Jess Williamson and Gabby Sevrain and sophomore Sage Christopher are all expected to return for Northwestern next season.

CENTRAL CATHOLIC

Arevelo 1-0-1-2, Davis 2-3-7-8, Eripret 2-4-8-8, Smzigel 0-0-0-0, Kocsis 1-2-2-5, Roberts 2-1-4-5, Dietz 1-0-2-3. TOTALS: 9-10-24-31.

NORTHWESTERN

Stitzel 0-0-0-0, Lister 2-1-2-5, Chisdak 2-1-2-6, G. Sevrain 3-0-0-6, S. Sevrain 0-0-0-0, Williamson 1-3-5-5, Christopher 1-4-4-6. TOTALS: 9-9-13-28.

Central Catholic 4 7 8 12 – 31

Northwestern 3 6 7 12 – 28

Three-pointers: CC – Davis 1, Kocsis 1, Dietz 1; N – Chisdak 1.