PALMER - Jason Woodcock calls Katherine Goodale the most unsung player in western Massachusetts.

The senior showed off her star power, both as a free-throw shooter and defender, and led the Belchertown girls basketball team to a dramatic, and historic, 51-49 win at Palmer on Tuesday night.

Goodale scored nine of her team's final 10 points, including 7 of 10 from the free throw line, as the Orioles (8-1, 3-0 Bi-County East) handed the Panthers (4-1, 0-1) their first regular-season loss since Feb. 19, 2008, a mark the ended at 44 straight games.

Goodale's free-throw shooting "is a weapon. I know in a game late, if we get ahead the ball better be in Katherine's hands," Woodcock said. "But it's more than that. She's like a shutdown corner (in football). She's never going to lead the league in interceptions because nothing every happens on her side. They don't even go to the kid she's guarding much of the time.

"She's an unbelievable defender. She can shut girls down defensively and still do what we need her offensively."

The Orioles were the last team to beat Palmer, 53-40 in Belchertown. The win Tuesday also snapped the Panthers' 28-game home winning streak, including the postseason. Palmer's last home loss came on Feb. 15, 2007, when it loss to Ludlow to end the season 7-13. The Panthers then won the Western Massachusetts Division 2 Tournament title in 2008 and 2010.

"They haven't lost in a long time," Goodale said. "They've always been rivals to us. It feels so good. Our team is so proud. We just played our hearts out, especially out at the end."

Belchertown trailed 47-41 with 4 minutes, 36 seconds remaining in the game when Goodale, who shoots around 90 percent from the charity stripe, was fouled and made both baskets.

She then knocked down an 18-footer from the right wing to cut the deficit to 47-45 with 3:57.

With the defense holding Palmer scoreless, Brianna Del Valle (10 points, nine rebounds) and Goodale each made one foul shot to even the score with 2:25 left for the first time since the tip-off.

The teams traded possessions without scoring before Goodale (13 points, eight rebounds, five steals) grabbed a defensive rebound and was fouled with 1:02 remaining.

She made both shots for the team's first lead of the game. But Tara Ingram (nine points) responded with a drive and make from the left baseline with 47 seconds left.

Palmer couldn't take advantage of a Belchertown turnover on the ensuing possession and Goodale was fouled underneath her basket with 14 seconds left.

"I just have to stay calm (at the foul line). I don't really think about it," she said. "I just block everything out. I know I can do it."

"It is a feeling of pride to know that my team wants me there in those situations."

She made the first, but left the second one short for a 50-49 lead with 14 seconds left. She then grabbed another defensive rebound and was again fouled with 3.5 seconds left, where she made the second free throw to close out the game.

"She misses when she's tired after playing 29 minutes running up and down the court covering Haley Laviolette (12 points)," Woodcock said. "She's all over the place. Katherine is unbelievable."

Palmer guard Alyssa Darling led both teams with 18 points.

"No matter how much we sagged off her, she blew right by us," Woodcock said. "We switched to zone twice and they scored quickly. We had to play man against everybody else and had to deal with Alyssa."

Things started off badly for Belchertown, as Palmer made its first five field goals to jump out to a 10-2 lead with 5:56 left in the first quarter.

"They were prepared for it and they got off to a real quick start," said Woodcock, who then switched from the team's 1-3-1 zone to man-to-man. "Really, from the 3-minute point on, it was a decent game. We made a lot of mistakes early on, but I was very proud of the composure late. Third quarter, fourth quarter, they made more mistakes than we did. We have a senior-laden team, four girls who have played a lot of games, playoff games, games in the Cage. Not that they don't. They are a phenomenal team, too, and they played very well."

The outlook only worsened when Del Valle, the team's top scorer and rebounded, picked up her third foul with 2:06 left in the frame and the team trailing 13-5.

"We panicked at the beginning when we fell behind. But we pulled through and played with heart," Goodale said. "Everyone played their best on both ends. (When Del Valle went to the bench), we knew we had to maintain on defense to keep the game close."

Britiany Browning (12 points) helped on the offensive end, scoring seven points down the stretch in the first quarter to cut the deficit to 16-10 heading into the first break.

Del Valle returned with 3:44 left in the second quarter and the Orioles trailing 24-16.

"I know I can trust her to play smart with three fouls," Woodcock said. "She's smart player and at that point, I felt we were going to have to have her out there or the game was going to get away from us."

Del Valle scored her first points of the game on a three-point play with just 24.5 seconds remaining in the half and the Orioles went into the locker room trailing 29-23 despite all that went wrong in the first two quarters.

"I'm just very proud," Woodcock said. "I was very impressed with our girls" Tuesday night.

Jim Pignatiello can be reached at jpignatiello@gazettenet.com.

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