Winning only three games in the 2013 portion of their 2013-14 season leaves a lot of work to be done for the Northwestern boys' basketball team this new year.

The Tigers got their first win of the new year last Saturday, beating Brandywine Heights 51-48 in a nonleague game in New Tripoli.

Northwestern (1-8 in Colonial League, 4-9 overall) were behind 12-8 after the first, but continued to fight as Brandywine's lack of height (the Bullets' tallest starter measured 6-foot-1) matched-up well with the Tigers in the paint.

However, the Tigers struggled shooting once again, as they went 7-for-25 from the field in the first half with senior Kevin Markovitch leading the way with seven points. Northwestern trailed 22-19 after one period.

Head coach Dan Eddinger talked about his team's offense against Brandywine.

"They came out in zone, so if you don't knock down jumpers or if you don't hit people in the right spots, you are going to struggle," said Eddinger. "I did like the fact that we went to the hoop a little more than we normally do, but we just didn't finish at times."

The Tigers came out on an 11-2 scoring run over the first four minutes of the third quarter. It was initiated by a momentum-swinging three from junior Taylor Breiniger (five points, four rebounds). Northwestern held the lead for the majority of the third, but a buzzer-beating three by Brandywine's Jake DeLong, who led all Bullets in scoring with 24, made it 38-36 in favor of Brandywine.

Northwestern recaptured the lead and extended it to as many as five points before Brandywine started chipping away. A three-point play by DeLong made it 45-43 with 3:23 left.

The Tigers made their foul shots down the stretch to preserve the lead. Junior Matt Archer (seven points, three rebounds), junior Cam Richardson (13 points, two rebounds) and sophomore Parker Jones (five points) combined to go 6-for-10 from the charity stripe.

"We are always confident that we can get a win," senior Collin Breidinger said. "We had a rough first half and got it together in the second half to get the win. I think we rushed our shots early on, but we calmed down."

Eddinger said slight alterations to his team are in place with a few players seeing an increase or decrease in playing time and he says it will be a game-to-game situation.

The next contest for the Tigers is Friday at Saucon Valley and they return home on January 21 to host Notre Dame (Green Pond).