Northwestern head coach Chris Deutsch and his Lady Tigers find themselves in an awkward position.

After Tuesday night's 52-30 loss to Southern Lehigh, the defending Colonial League champs are 3-3 overall and 0-3 in league play.

Deutsch isn't pushing the panic button yet, since the league playoffs will now consist of six teams instead of four.

The Tigers have lost to Saucon Valley, Palmerton and the Lady Spartans, three teams that could be the best in the league.

Palmerton picked up a 62-54 victory last Friday and is still unbeaten. A 23-point second quarter led by Jade Farquhar with 11 of those points, saw the Bombers go from a four-point first quarter lead, to a 13-point lead at intermission.

"We got off to a slow start," Deutsch said. "Palmerton came out and did a real nice job hitting shots. It seemed like every shot they took in the first half was going in.

"I thought offensively in the first half we were rushing it a little bit taking too quick of a shot. We wanted to push the ball a little bit and I thought it played into their hands. We were a little out of sync offensively in the first half, but our execution was much better in the second half.

"My concern was defensively. We gave up 62 points and 39 in the first half. That's not acceptable. We threw a lot of different defenses out there, but they just seed to keep making shots.

"We've been trying to convey to our girls you have to play a full four quarters of basketball and we haven't gotten that. We maybe get two full quarters that we play good, but when you are playing the better teams, you have to play all four quarters. Our schedule's been tough to start the year. We have 13 league games left and take them one at a time.

"We're learning to play the game differently this year, without [graduate Trista] Cunningham inside. She's a big loss. We need a balanced attack from everyone right now."

Against Jim Thorpe, Deutsch saw what he liked.

The Tigers took out some frustration on the young Olympians as Northwestern built a 24-2 first quarter lead en route to a 62-34 win.

The Olympian freshman phenom Kayley Kovac poured in 50 points in her first two games of this season, making Deutsch go to Sarah Segan for the defensive assignment. After limiting her to seven first-half points, it's safe to say that the strategy worked.

"Segan did a heck of a job on Kayley," said Jim Thorpe coach Rob Kovac. "She took away Kayley's right hand and made her go to her left and it just seemed like we were constantly running into double-teams. So you have to credit Segan for the way she came out and put the clamps on her assignment."

"I thought we came out with a lot of energy and intensity to start the game," Deutsch said. "We talked before this game how disappointed I was in our defensive effort, allowing so many points."

With back-to-back games against Moravian Academy and Northern Lehigh, the Tigers have a chance turn to things around.