It is safe to say that nobody saw the end of the season coming as early as it did for Northwestern Lehigh’s Lady Tigers. The regular season ended with Northwestern at 18-4, good enough to be the third seed in the Colonial League tournament. The Tigers beat Pen Argyl and Bangor to advance to the finals against a Palmerton team that went 20-1 during the year and was favored to win the league crown after coming up short the year before when the Lady Tigers beat them. Northwestern Lehigh was up to the task and knocked off the Lady Bombers 40-38 to earn back-to-back league championships.

Palmerton had downed Northwestern twice during the regular season, winning by 13 early in the season and then by eight late in the season. The only loss Palmerton suffered was to Jim Thorpe, another team with just one regular season loss on its record.

The prevailing thought was that the District 11 Class 4A championship game would feature top seeded Jim Thorpe against number two seed Northwestern Lehigh. Think again. The Lady Tigers opened their run against seventh seeded Lehighton and the Indians came out the more relaxed team and were able to beat a Northwestern team that appeared listless at times and never found their groove in the game.

The result was a 37-34 upset win for Lehighton. The Indians then lost in the next round to Allentown Central Catholic. Meanwhile, on the other side of the bracket, Jim Thorpe took care of business, winning by 21 points in their tournament opener against North Schuylkill and then destroying Central Catholic 42-11 to take the district championship.

“It’s upsetting,” said an emotional Northwestern head coach Chris Deutsch after the loss to Lehighton. “We just never got started tonight and we are a better team than what we showed. It’s a tough way for the season to end.”

The Lady Tigers stumbled slightly out of the gate and found themselves at 3-2 with losses to Palmerton and Pottsville. Things got better with a stretch that saw Northwestern win 13 of their next 14 games to reestablish themselves as one of the stronger teams. One final loss to Palmerton was a hiccup but wins against Northern Lehigh and Catasauqua finished the season on a high note.

The good news is that the team says goodbye to just three seniors – Brynn Balliet, Rachel Dorney and Maria Kirkopoulos – and will have some experience to draw from next season.

“Our seniors really did a heck of a job for us this year,” noted Deutsch. “We have a young team and they helped to lead the younger players right from the opening of practice through the season. We are going to miss them, but that’s part of high school basketball is that players move on, and I wish all three of them the best.”

Junior Paige Sevrain led the team by averaging 14 points per game, while freshman dropped in 11.5 per game for the Lady Tigers. Sevrain will come into her senior season needing just 111 points to reach the 1,000-point plateau. Thomas has put herself into consideration to be next in line to hit the plateau with 298 points in her first season of varsity basketball.

Junior Maci Fisher averaged 4.3 per game this season with freshman players Brooke Balliet (5.5 per game) and Rylee McGinley (3.7) both picking up valuable varsity experience and taking their turn in the spotlight during the season. Both freshman players had season-high games with 14 points during the regular season.

“We have most of our core group of players back next season,” said Deutsch. “They all really developed a lot this season and worked hard to get better and adjust their games. You can’t say that our girls didn’t put in the work, and we can look forward to seeing how much better they will be next season.”