The Northwestern girls basketball team saw its season end against a tall and athletic Jim Thorpe team that defeated the Tigers in the District 11 semifinals, keeping Northwestern from competing for their second championship of the postseason after winning the Colonial League championship. Along the way, head coach Chris Deutsch won his 300th game as the coach of the team on the same night that his players won the league title.

Deutsch and his team came into the season stressing the team’s ability to play a shutdown defense and they did just that for much of the year. Their goal was to hold opponents to 30 points or less per game and they did so in 11 of their 19 games this season, finishing with a 17-2 record overall.

“Our girls aren’t just looking to put up points,” said Deutsch. “We realize that we can hold down other teams and we can win a lot of games that way.”

Senior Ali Lister and sophomore Paige Sevrain led the offense, scoring 10.95 and 12.58 points per game respectively.

Lister was a standout on defense and teams often found themselves chasing her down the court after she initiated a steal and had a breakaway on transition. Meanwhile, Sevrain is establishing herself as a player that other teams must find a way to contain offensively, and she also can keep teams from getting too many opportunities down low.

As the senior players on this team were developing over the past couple of seasons, this year’s edition was one that fans, and pundits were talking about for some time. The roster had six seniors, four of which were in the starting lineup. The fact that the Tigers made a deep run into districts was no surprise to anyone.

“These girls have all worked very hard this season and throughout their time here at Northwestern and they became very good players,” said Deutsch. “In addition, they’ve been very good to coach and have really made it a lot of fun to be around at practices and games. This year especially, they faced a lot of issues with wearing masks and the concerns about the virus and they just went out and played hard and didn’t complain.”

With the loss of the six seniors – Kate Betz, Adana Funk, Kailyn Jones, Tess Ledeboer, Lister and Caitlyn Miller – the team is losing nearly 25 points per game in scoring from this season. The team had just two juniors on the roster this season to go with five sophomores and a freshman. There will be plenty of playing time up for grabs next season.

“It’s an opportunity for some of these younger players to show that they can play at the varsity level,” said Deutsch when he looked past this season and toward the future. “We have good leaders that have shown them what it takes to win, so at some point they’ll be ready to step in and take over.”

As for Deutsch, he completed his 18th season as the team’s head coach and downplayed his achievement of reaching the 300-win plateau, preferring instead to credit the players that he has had over his time at Northwestern Lehigh.

“When you coach for a long time and get the kind of kids that we get here at Northwestern that want to learn and want to win, you’re going to win games,” said Deutsch. “It’s really a testament to the student athletes we have here and just hanging around long enough to reach those milestones.”