The play that coach Cory Cesare set up for the final 12.8 seconds of last Thursday’s game against Salisbury had a high probability of success. The play that Cade Christopher put together had very little chance of success.

Guess which one turned into a game winner in Northwestern Lehigh’s 41-39 win over Salisbury. Let’s just say that it was not the way Cesare drew things up in that final timeout.

The good news for Northwestern (8-8 overall, 8-6 Colonial League) was that Cade Christopher pulled down an offensive rebound. The bad news was that while he was in a good spot on the court to shoot, his back was toward the basket.

With no other option, he put a shot up over his shoulder as he fell away from the basket. Christopher barely had time to turn to see the ball drop through the hoop as his teammates celebrated what turned out to be an improvised game-winning shot.

“I just had a feeling where the net was,” said Christopher, who finished his night with 17 points. “I knew we had little time left, so I just had to put up a shot and luckily, it went in.”

The basket capped a back-and-forth contest that saw the momentum shift from one side to the other throughout the game.

Northwestern fell behind early only to rally back and lead 17-13 at the half.

The Tigers team that emerged from the locker room to start the third quarter looked nothing like the one on the court in the first half.

Meanwhile, Salisbury put everything together and went on an 18-point binge over the game’s final eight-minutes. Northwestern Lehigh turned the ball over six times in the early part of the quarter and not only lost the lead when Hunter Bleam drove the lane on back-to-back possessions, but also found themselves trailing by nine points in the final minute of regulation.

“When you have two freshmen playing and handling the ball, those things (turnovers) are going to happen, but we hung in there and we dealt with the mistakes and in the fourth quarter we executed and got it done,” Cesare said.

Christopher hit a couple early baskets in the final quarter and Ethan Lazarus was fouled on his way to another Northwestern basket.

The senior then hit the foul shot to cut the Falcons lead to just three with 5:07 left in the game.

“We have three great seniors and they picked us up and we knew we had to play better, and it just happened for us to get the W today,” said Christopher.

Salisbury (8-7, 7-5) stretched their lead back to seven before Northwestern Lehigh went on a 10-0 run and looked to have the game in hand until Kyle Artis broke the scoring drought for the Falcons by nailing a three-pointer with just :17 left on the clock and knotting the game at 39. Cesare used his final timeout, and the team went back on the court and unleashed the heroics by Christopher.

In some respects, the game came down to foul shooting. The Tigers hit eight of their nine attempts, including all five in the fourth quarter. Salisbury converted just two of their seven trips to the line into points.

The win snapped the Tigers’ four-game losing streak and six losses in their last eight games that started with a 45-29 loss to the Falcons early this month. With just six regular season games – four of them in Colonial League play – Christopher thinks the win will prove to be a turning point for the team in the stretch run and into the league tournament.

“Players talked with each other during that streak, and we knew we weren’t playing like ourselves,” Christopher said. “We just had to keep on working and put in the work at practice and it showed off today. Now, we just have to keep getting better because we definitely have the ability to get hot and win a bunch of games if we play like a team.”

The Tigers went on to beat Catasauqua 63-47 before suffering a setback at Southern Lehigh where they fell 47-32. In the win over Catty, Dylan Witkowski scored 17 and Ethan Lazarus netted 13. Freshman Gavin Nelson led the team with 12 points in the loss to the Spartans. Northwestern hosts Palmerton (13-4, 10-4) tonight before road games at Northern Lehigh (2-13, 1-10) and Catasauqua (0-13, 0-12).