Northwestern Lehigh’s stifling defense and a couple of hot hands off the bench made for a rough night for Salisbury when the two teams squared off in the quarterfinals of the Colonial League playoffs. In the end, Northwestern was able to pull away for a 52-24 win over the Falcons.

The Lady Tigers defense had held opponents to 30 points or less in nine of their 15 games coming into the game and were 9-0 in those games.

Salisbury (7-9) fell behind early when Northwestern opened a 10-2 lead. In the second quarter, the Lady Tigers went on a 10-0 run sparked in part by Kate Betz, who came off the bench and forced three quick fouls on Falcons players and hit all six of her free throws. By the end of the first half, Northwestern had jumped out to a 29-14 lead.

Salisbury coach Dan Reichenbach tipped his cap to the Northwestern defense and also noted that when his team did have some shots, they weren’t able to finish the opportunities.

“We missed a couple layups and just a lot of good, decent shot opportunities,” said Reichenbach. “They really did pick up their defensive effort since the first time that we played them this season and they were able to take Quinn [Wittman] away. They were smart in switching the girls that they had on her and they used their size advantage.”

Northwestern (13-1) took advantage of its opportunities from the foul line. The Tigers hit 20-of-24 free throws on the night and held Salisbury to just nine opportunities from the line with the Falcons hitting just two of those shots.

In the third quarter, Northwestern outscored Salisbury 14-8 and held a 43-22 lead and then held the Falcons to just two points in the final quarter to put the game away.

Senior Melena Koutch led Salisbury with 10 points and junior Krista Bonge was second on the team with six points. Senior Ali Lister led Northwestern with 14 and sophomore Paige Sevrain finished with 13 points.

“We rely on our defense to create offense, so we have to play a trapping defense,” said Reichenbach. “Our goal tonight was to take the big girl [Sevrain] and Lister out of their offense and try to force them to go to other places, but they did hit a lot of shots and they did a good job with that.

“We missed a lot of foul shots and layups and we just didn’t shoot the ball very well. I’m not disappointed with the effort; we just couldn’t match up.”

Reichenbach pointed out that the first time the two teams played, his team was down by just four points late in the game, but they couldn’t compete against the improved Northwestern Lehigh defense.

Salisbury played Oley Valley two nights later to stay ready for District 11 play and downed the Lady Lynx 61-55. Bonge finished with a game-high 17 points, while Wittman finished with 16 and Koutch was also in double figures with 12.

The Lady Falcons will open play in the District 11 Class 3A tournament Thursday night at Pine Grove. Salisbury is seeded fifth, while Pine Grove is the number-four seed. The Lynx are 11-10 on the season overall. The winner will likely play the 3A top seed Notre Dame Green Pond (10-4) in the semifinals Saturday night.