Long ago, the Northwestern Lehigh girls basketball team clinched a spot in districts and since then has gone on to clinch a spot in the Colonial League playoffs.

On the final night of the regular season, a 50-21 win at Catasauqua (10-12 overall, 6-11 Colonial League) allowed the Tigers to finish the season at 21-1 overall and 16-1 in league play. Late last week, they downed Northern Lehigh (13-9, 9-8) by a 54-23 final.

The Tigers finished the season tied with Palmerton atop the West Division. The division title was settled by the league’s fourth tiebreaking criteria. Palmerton’s district ranking against league opponents elevated them into the top seed and moved Northwestern to the No. 3 seed. Notre Dame (Green Pond) is the No. 2 seed based on being the East Division champ.

The Tigers will host No. 6 seed Northern Lehigh in Saturday’s first round at 6 p.m.

In Northwestern’s last two regular season games, Paige Sevrain led the way with 17 points against the Lady Bulldogs and then came back to score 13 against Catty. Cara Thomas finished with a total of 23 points in the two games.

Northern Lehigh turned out to be pesky when it grabbed the lead away from the Tigers with 3:41 to play in the first quarter when Aubrey Pollard hit the second of two foul shots. The lead again changed hands and Northwestern led by one after the first quarter.

The Bulldogs got a quick basket from Katelynn Barthold to regain the lead at 8-7, only to quickly lose their edge. Northern Lehigh again tied the game at 10-10 on a drive by Pollard, who scored 14 points on the night to lead her team. Northwestern Lehigh held a two-point lead at 14-12 with 2:23 left in the first half when they closed the quarter with a 9-0 run and led 23-12 at halftime.

“Teams are going to come out every night to try to beat us and Northern Lehigh did that tonight,” said Northwestern coach Chris Deutsch. “The last three minutes of the first half we ramped it up a little bit and it made a difference coming out in the third quarter.”

If the Lady Bulldogs were hoping the break would cool off the Northwestern Lehigh shooters, it didn’t happen.

Northwestern scored the first four points of the second half and led by 15 with 6:06 left in the third quarter. After Pollard sank two free throws, Northwestern went on their second extended run of the night and scored the next 11 points to move in front 38-15 with :15 left in the third quarter.

Northwestern went almost exclusively with role players in the final quarter, but they were able to keep Northern Lehigh from pulling any closer. Sophomore Rylee McGinley scored seven of her eight points over the final 5:30 of the game, nailing two three-pointers on back-to-back Northwestern possessions.

“Riley has been playing really well lately for us,” said Deutsch. “She can come off the bench and hit some threes against the zone and that’s important for us to have someone who can do that. She has continued to get better throughout the year, and she played well again tonight.”

“I think that (hitting threes) is one of my specialties,” said McGinley, who is averaging 3.4 points per game off the bench and has scored 18 in the last two games. “Early in the game can be rough because if you’re in a different gym you have to get adjusted to the basket, but once you start hitting them you just get on a roll.”

McGinley has been solid off the bench for Deutsch, scoring 10 points in a win over Salisbury earlier in the week and contributing 10 points over the final two games.

“Earlier in the season there were some nerves, but as the season has gone on, I just feel more comfortable and confident on the court with my teammates,” said McGinley.

The Colonial League playoffs begin this weekend and continue with semifinals on Tuesday and championship games scheduled for Friday, Feb. 17 at Freedom High School.