The Lady Tigers may face the Lady Slaters in the Colonial League playoffs next week.

They already beat them once, earlier this season, by only two points, at Bangor.

Tuesday night, Bangor visited New Tripoli for a potential playoff preview and the Lady Tigers came out victorious.

Northwestern (20-1 overall, 14-1 CL) defeated Bangor, 56-46, in a battle of the two top teams in the Colonial League North division on senior night at Northwestern Lehigh High School.

The first quarter of this hard-fought battle was a usual one for the Lady Tigers as they came out struggling. As did the Lady Slaters (12-8, 10-5) early on, but it began to click for Bangor late in the first and they pulled out to a 16-10 lead after one.

Head coach Chris Deutsch can't wrap his head around the constant slow starts.

"I tell them to get off to a good start," he said. "Sometimes I use reverse psychology and tell them to get off to a bad start. I don't know what that is. I wish we weren't like that. I like the way we finish games. I just wouldn't mind if we did that for four quarters."

The Lady Tiger defense stepped up in the second quarter as it forced Bangor to commit seven turnovers in the period. Offensively, Northwestern took advantage as it scored in each of its first five possessions. That allowed the Lady Tigers to take a slim lead and they pushed it to six, but went cold in the last three minutes of the half, scoring only one point on a foul shot by sophomore Erika Thomas (four points, five rebounds).

Bangor, which attempted 16 free throws in the first half, scored its last seven points of the half on foul shots, including two with two seconds left to knot it up at 28 heading in to the locker room.

"We put them on the line way too many times," Deutsch admitted. "They are a good foul shooting team. If we put a good team on the line a lot, it may not go well for us."

The third quarter went extremely well for the Lady Tigers as the Lady Slaters scored only eight points as Northwestern went on a 15-6 run over the last 4:05 of the period to break open a 43-36 lead.

The speedy third quarter included seven points from senior Trista Cunningham (13 points, five rebounds) and a great baseline jumper from junior Lauren Anderson, who, according to Deutsch, stepped up her game Tuesday night.

Northwestern opened up the final period with four straight points from junior Sabrina Mertz, who led all scorers with 20 points, including five three-pointers, before Bangor registered their first tally of the quarter.

Deutsch knows production from Mertz is important for success in the future.

"It will give her a lot of confidence going in to the postseason," he said. "It will open up other people to score. In the beginning of the year, she was automatic from the three-point line, but then she banged her knee up and has to wear a knee brace."

A basket by Bangor's Meredith Colton, who led all Lady Slaters with 11 points, brought Bangor to within seven with 3:53 left, but Tiger sophomore Megan Landrigan knocked down a three on Northwestern's ensuing possession to make it 50-40 and squash any hopes of a comeback by Bangor. The Lady Tigers made their late free throws count, making six of seven to close it out.

Northwestern travels to Catty Thursday to close out the regular season. A win ensures the No. 1 seed in the league tournament, as the Tigers own the head-to-head tiebreaker over Southern Lehigh, the leader of the South Division.