Northwestern Lehigh and Bangor didn’t exactly put on an exhibition on how to play basketball when the two teams met recently. They combined for 20 turnovers and just 12 points in the first quarter of their game.

Things did settle down, especially for Northwestern, and the Lady Tigers grabbed a 47-41 win, keeping their unbeaten season alive with eight wins to start the season, six of them coming against Colonial League teams.

Bangor continued to struggle with turnovers throughout the rest of the game, handing the ball back 30 times, while Northwestern had 25 turnovers in the game, but recovered their ability to hit shots. The second quarter was when Northwestern played its best basketball of the night, with just three turnovers and 11 points from senior Caitlyn Miller, giving the Tigers a 21-14 lead at halftime.

“I got a lot of great passes from my teammates and coming off the bench, I knew that we needed some points,” said Miller. “We all knew this was going to be a really tough game and it’s important for all of us to contribute, so I was happy that I was able to contribute.”

Miller also had some big stops on defense and her work came at a crucial time since Northwestern was without Tess Ledeboer and Bangor was able to contain Paige Sevrain, who scored just six points in the game.

In the second quarter burst, Miller scored nine straight points and had 11 of the 15 points that the Lady Tigers scored. The Northwestern defense continued to force turnovers and held Bangor to a total of just eight points in the period.

Kailyn Jones hit two three-pointers in the third quarter for Northwestern, the second one put the Tigers up 29-20 with just under three minutes remaining. If the second quarter belonged to Miller, it was classmate Ali Lister who took over in the final quarter, scoring six straight points for Northwestern. Many of her points came off steals that she then converted to layups at the other end.

“Ali has that knack for being able to step into lanes or defend a girl and poke the ball away and she compliments that with being able to get control and head for the basket,” said Tiger head coach Chris Deutsch. “She does that so often and a lot of times it comes when we most need a stop. They led 36-30 and we came out of a timeout and she got a steal and scored and then another steal and got fouled. She gave us three points in two possessions off steals.”

Bangor looked to come back but could not draw any closer than a six-point deficit. They had fallen behind by as many as nine points at the end of the third quarter. Madison Kluska scored 11 second-half points for the Slaters and was a presence down low. Northwestern’s lead had fallen to 36-30 before Bangor’s timeout led into Lister’s heroics. Kluska hit a three-pointer with 12 seconds left to play to again cut it to a six-point lead.

“At the beginning of the season, had you told me we would even be able to play eight games, I would have been happy because there was so much uncertainty,” said Deutsch. “If you would have told me we would have won all eight games, I would have been ecstatic. We’ve beaten some pretty good teams and tonight was a test because Bangor is a good team.

Northwestern had a week off between games because of the postponement of a game against Notre Dame (Green Pond), which is scheduled to be made up tonight. Deutsch used the added day off to sneak in an extra practice, which felt like a luxury. The Lady Tigers were to have a hectic week, but weather wiped out games scheduled for Monday and Wednesday.