Tigers stay unbeaten in CL
The Northwestern Lehigh girls basketball team has been keeping busy through the first three weeks of the season.
After an opening night loss, the team has put together seven straight wins with an average margin of victory of 28 points. The schedule had the Lady Tigers (7-1 overall, 5-0 Colonial League) on the road for three of the last four games and they have another road game before they host Palmerton on Saturday.
Senior Cara Thomas and freshman Natalie Conner have had the hot hands in the early going with Thomas averaging 18.3 points per game and Conner contributing 15.6 points per game for the Lady Tigers offense. Thomas reset her career high when she scored 25 points against Northern Lehigh and Conner had a career-high 21 points against Lehighton (1-5, 1-5) Monday night.
The four most recent wins started with a 68-23 win at Southern Lehigh (1-6, 1-4) that saw three players – Conner (17), Thomas (13), and Emma Freeman (11) – all score in double digits.
Freeman nailed three from beyond the arc and followed up the next night with three more long-range shots when she put up another 11-point performance in a 54-46 win against Catasauqua.
Thomas led the Tigers with 20 points against the Rough Riders (2-3, 2-2).
The scoring leader in each of the past two games has been Conner, who had her career-high 21-point game Monday night in a 59-12 drubbing of Lehighton (1-5, 1-5) and followed that up with 20 points Tuesday night in a nonleague game at Freedom (2-5 overall, 1-4 EPC). Thomas scored 20 at Lehighton and 16 against the Patriots.
Thomas has moved to 1,158 career points for Northwestern, which leaves her exactly 100 points behind Paige Sevrain for the all-time scoring record as a Tiger.
Leading up to the Christmas break, Northwestern has a road game at Saucon Valley, (0-4 overall, 0-4 Colonial) a home contest against Palmerton (6-0, 6-0) and a nonleague road game at Pottsville (0-6 overall, 0-4 Schuylkill). Northwestern has an 11-day break over the holidays before it hosts Notre Dame of Green Pond (5-1 overall, 5-0 Colonial) on Jan. 3.