An up and down regular season for the Northwestern Lehigh boys basketball team ended on a high note with the Tigers carrying a three-game winning streak into the postseason.

Wins over Northern Lehigh (3-19 overall, 2-16 Colonial) and Catasauqua (0-22, 0-18) in Colonial League games and over Brandywine Heights (4-12) in the season finale gave the Tigers a 12-10 overall record and a finishing mark of 10-7 in the Colonial League.

First up is the Colonial League tournament, which begins Thursday, where Northwestern Lehigh travels to Palmerton (16-6, 13-5) to face the Blue Bombers, who split their two regular season games against the Tigers. Following the Colonial League playoffs, the Tigers head to the District 11 tournament.

“I think we did pretty well in our league games,” said first-year Northwestern head coach Cory Cesare. “The problem has come in the nonconference play, but in terms of how we competed in the league, it was good. We mainly beat the teams we were supposed to beat and lost the games where we wouldn’t have been favored to win. Even in those games though we played decent and showed that we can be a tough team to beat.”

In a good sign that the team is playoff ready, Northwestern played a near flawless game in a 58-24 win over Catasauqua. Ethan Lazarus led the way with 18 points and Dylan Witkowski finished with 16 to pace the Tigers.

“I was able to play well and the rest of the team played well and it was a great night for all of us,” said Lazarus of the win over the Rough Riders. “A lot of the guys contributed and that’s a key for us because we are a better team when we play together like that and that has to be our motto going forward.”

Cesare echoed those sentiments and was glad to see a full-team effort late into the season and heading into the playoffs.

“I was waiting for us to play a complete game like this,” said Cesare. “We had a really excellent practice leading up to the game and I think that contributed to how we played. We tried to get back to our roots and do a lot of the drills we were doing in the beginning of the season and get back to who we wanted to be when we all started the journey.”

Northwestern Lehigh beat Brandywine Heights 52-40 to finish the regular season and again it was Witkowski and Lazarus leading the team in scoring, with Witkowski dropping in 19 points and Lazarus scoring 12.

“We have a lot of great players here and we all do our part,” said Lazarus. “I think the way we are playing right now, we can beat anybody. Going into the playoffs we want to be the team that stays together. We have camaraderie and we are working together well right now, so we just have to continue that and keep hustling and work as hard as we can. We had a hiccup in the middle of the season, but we picked it back up and this is some of the best basketball we have played all season.”

Lazarus has certainly been playing his best basketball of the season at a crucial point, averaging 14 points per game in the last four games of the season. He averaged eight points per game this season while Witkowski led the team in scoring with just under 13 points per game.

“I think we did a good job of recognizing that in this league any team is capable of putting together a good game and beating you on any night,” said Cesare. “We did a good job of knowing that and handling each game the right way and not taking teams for granted. We have to feel good about that and recognize that in the playoffs, you get one shot at a team and if you have the slightest let down your season can come to an end.”

A win over Palmerton in the quarterfinals would match up the Tigers with top seed Southern Lehigh in the semifinals. The other quarterfinal game tonight has Salisbury (12-9, 11-7) going to Wilson (15-6, 13-4) with the winner facing Notre Dame (17-5, 15-2) in the semis net Tuesday. The semifinal games will be played at Catasauqua High School with the finals being played at Freedom High School in Bethlehem on Friday, Feb. 18 as a doubleheader with the girls league final.