BETHLEHEM — In a game of runs, Upper Dublin had the one that mattered most.

The District 1 champions strung together 12 points and shut out Hazleton Area over the final 3:31 to rally past the District 2 champions, 51-42, in a tense PIAA Class 6A girls basketball quarterfinal Friday at Liberty High School.

“I think what you saw tonight, — if you haven’t see our girls play — is how relentless they are,” winning head coach Morgan Funsten said. “They (the Lady Cougars) are such a good offensive rebounding team, in addition to so many other things that they do well. … They’re just so relentless on the offensive glass, but so are we (relentless). I thought we matched their relentlessness. …. That’s how we won the game in the fourth quarter.”

Indeed, the Cardinals (30-2) outrebounded their District 2 counterparts by a 2-to-1 margin (12-6) in the final period, almost mirroring what they did in the first half when their domination on the boards helped them open a double-digit lead. One late offensive rebound in particular was a boon to Upper Dublin and a backbreaker for Hazleton Area, that being Tamia Clark picking off a teammate’s rare missed free throw and laying it back in for two of her game-high 21 points, extending her team’s lead from five to seven with 47 seconds left and essentially sealing its hard-earned victory.

“That was one of several 50-50 balls where Tamia went about 2 feet above everybody else to grab it,” Funsten said. “Besides Tamia, Emilia Coleman and the others were big on the boards for us.”

By game’s end, Upper Dublin had a 45-29 rebounding advantage.

The Cardinals needed to flex their muscles on the boards against an opponent they’d seldom seen this season: one with the talent and resolve to fight back. Besides, Upper Dublin’s normally accurate shooters made only 14-of-51 tries from the floor (27.5%), including only 4-of-25 (16%) from beyond the arc.

“We shot the ball well in our last game against Perk (Perkiomen) Valley, but in our previous five or six games up until then, we shot the ball poorly,” Funsten said. “That’s what’s really impressive about the (postseason) run we’ve been on and really says a lot about this team and how they find other ways to win.”

After being down by as many as 10 point late in the second quarter, the Lady Cougars (26-3) battled back to go ahead by late in the third quarter. The teams then swapped baskets and slim leads deep into the final period. A photo finish between the big public school heavyweights seemed inevitable.

“I loved the way we came back,” Hazleton Area head coach Joe Gavio said. “Things didn’t look good for us early, but then we made that nice, little run and turned it into quite a game.”

The Lady Cougars led, 42-39, after Kayla Lagowy cashed a Sophia Benyo steal into a layup with the scoreboard clock winding toward the three-minute mark, igniting the huge Hazleton Area crowd,

They didn’t score again.

Upper Dublin, meanwhile, got four points from Clark and 6 of 7 free throws from Megan Ngo down the stretch to salt away its closest win of the season.

“We knew that they were a great team,” Ngo said. “We knew that they could really push the ball and they had a lot of versatile pieces. We had to watch a lot of film to see what they liked to do and take away each player’s strength. I thought we did a great job of that, but us staying together when the game got tight was the biggest thing.”

With Clark scoring nine first-quarter points and her teammates and she owning the boards, Cardinals led by as many as eight points (11-3) early in the game. They eventually stretched their advantage to 23-13 on a Clark deuce off a Bridget DiMartile feed, before Lagowy’s free throw, Alexis Reimold’s hoop and Benyo’s four fouls shots helped the Lady Cougars pull within 23-20 by halftime.

Hazleton Area finally caught the Cardinals on Bindas’ five-point run late in the third quarter. Her 3-pointer and then a layup gave the Cougars a 29-28 lead at the 2:16 mark. Coleman regained the edge for Upper Dublin with two free throws. Freshman Molly Temchatin converted an old-time three-point play for the Lady Cougars, only to have Coleman answer with her only triple of the night for a 33-32 UD lead, setting the stage for a back-and-forth fourth quarter.

At least until the final three-and-a-half minutes.

The Lady Cougars held the upper hand, albeit by a small margin, throughout the early stages of the final quarter. Reimold connected on a three and later slinked inside for a left-handed layup, but the Cardinals stayed within striking distance. Leading by three points on two different occasions, Hazleton Area tried to milk the clock, but two untimely, uncharacteristic turnovers and a couple missed shots foiled those plans.

“We were up by three when we decided that we wanted to pull them out and try to calm things down a little bit,” Gavio said. “We thought, ‘We have the lead. Let’s relax. Let them chase us.’”

Instead, the Cardinals pounced on Hazleton Area’s misfortune to reclaim momentum and ultimately win the game.

Ngo’s two foul shots put Upper Dublin ahead to stay. 43-42, with 1:51 left. Her team needed only one more field goal the rest of the way — Clark’s aforementioned putback, but its ability to knock down free throws added to the deceptive final score.

The La Salle University-bound Coleman followed Clark on the Upper Dublin side of the score sheet with 10 points. Ngo finished with nine, all from the free throw line, while DiMartile, a Michigan lacrosse recruit, contributed eight.

Reimold capped her Hazleton Area career with a team-best 13 points. Bindas scored 11, including three 3-pointers, and Benyo checked in with nine points.

Upper Dublin will face District 12 champion Archbishop Carroll in Monday’s semifinals at a site and time to be determined. Carroll eliminated Red Lion, 57-45, on Friday.

“To get to where we want to go (winning the state title), we have to get through the three other best teams in the state,” Funsten said. “Tonight was one of them. … We’ll enjoy this one for 15 minutes and then start thinking about the next one.”

Hazleton Area was left to reflect on its third state playoff loss at Liberty in the past three seasons. The past two were to Cardinal O’Hara and Perkiomen Valley, both eventual PIAA Class 6A champions.

“Our effort was tremendous,” Gavio said. “They just happened to make some more plays at the end of the game than we did. We were right there. …It’s disheartening, but it’s not our girls’ fault. It was great the way they came back against an outstanding team. … I hope they (the Cardinals) do go all the way, so we could say that we lost to the state champ three years in a row.

“Maybe we’ll be the last ones standing next year.”

Game summary

PIAA Class 6A Girls’ Quarterfinal

At Liberty H.S., Bethlehem

HAZLETON AREA (42)

Marolo 0 1-2 1, Benyo 1 7-8 9, Silva 0 0-0 0, Rodgers 0 0-0 0, Bindas 4 0-0 11, Fritz 1 0-0 2, Temchatin 1 1-1 3, Lagowy 1 1-2 3, Reimold 6 0-0 13. Totals 14 10-13 42.

UPPER DUBLIN (51)

DiMartile 3 0-0 8, Clark 8 5-10 21, M. Ngo 0 9-10 9, L. Ngo 0 0-0 0, Coleman 2 5-6 10, Morris 1 0-0 3. Totals 14 19-26 51.

HA (26-3) 8 12 12 10 — 42

UD (30-2) 14 9 10 18 — 51

3-FG: Bindas 3, Reimold, DiMartile 2, Coleman, Morris