The Lady Tigers had a busy week. Trista Cunningham, Sabrina Mertz and Sarah Segan appeared on a local sports television show Monday night. The team scrimmaged Parkland on Wednesday and the entire squad went out for a team dinner Friday night before appearing on another television program. All of which led up to their District 11 Class AAA quarterfinal game against seventh-seeded Blue Mountain on Saturday.

After the contest, one can also say it was a successful seven days.

The No. 2 seeded Lady Tigers defeated the Lady Eagles, 53-32, in their matchup at Northern Lehigh High School.

"I thought going on [television] and going out to dinner was a great bonding thing for the girls," said Northwestern head coach Chris Deutsch. "But what really helped us was that scrimmage against Parkland. I thought the girls did a great job and it helped us the rest of the week as we had good practices on Thursday and Friday. We also had a good walk through. So I knew we were ready to go."

Deutsch was spot on as his team got out to a quick start and battled with Blue Mountain early. A baseline jumper by senior Kylee Bennett with 3:22 left in the first made it 10-8 as the Lady Tigers reclaimed the lead and never looked back.

Northwestern took a 15-10 lead into the second, where it began to pull away from Blue Mountain as the Lady Eagles committed five straight turnovers to start the period. Back to back buckets from Blue Mountain's Corinne Foster, who paced the Lady Eagles with 12 points, cut the deficit to six, 20-14, with 4:28 left in the half.

Scrappy Blue Mountain hung tough and was trailing by eight after Cunningham, who scored a game-high 17 points, made a layup with 34 seconds left to sustain the momentum and a 27-19 lead going into half.

Tigers Sophomore Erika Thomas registered 14 points, nine in the first half, likes that her team is getting off to better starts lately.

"I definitely think it is a good thing," she said. "We changed the way we have started and that has really been helpful to us. It has given us some confidence to know that if we keep that pace up that we can win the game."

The third quarter of the game was delayed as both scoreboards became inoperable. Northern Lehigh's staff handled it well and got one working for the rest of the game after a short delay.

Northwestern scored 14 points in the third frame and held Blue Mountain to only seven points as the Lady Eagles went 2-for-9 from the field.

The quarter started with a quick 7-2 run that was capped off by a three from Thomas to make it 34-21 with 5:40 remaining. The Lady Tigers finished the third with another 7-2 run that lasted the final 97 seconds of the quarter as Cunningham drove to the basket and laid it in with 2.1 seconds left to give Northwestern a 41-26 edge.

Deutsch lauded the defensive play of his team as Blue Mountain averages 43.5 points per game.

The Lady Eagles came as close as 17 points in that final frame before two foul shots by sophomore Megan Landrigan and a nice drive and layup by junior Lauren Anderson stretched the lead to 51-30 as the starters for both squads exited the game with 1:15 left.

The win, Northwestern's 24th of the season, tied a school record for most wins in a single season, which was set by the 2005-06 team.

"I think it is amazing," Thomas said. "I honestly love all these girls and we all love each other. We are like a family. To be able to achieve these milestones as a team, as a family, is great. We are enjoying our time together."

The Lady Tigers took on No. 3 Central Catholic in the District 11 AAA semifinal on Wednesday at Northern Lehigh High School. That game was played after Press deadline for this issue. See next week's edition for coverage.