The Northwestern Lehigh boys basketball team has played as well as any team in the Colonial League so far this season.

With an offense that has posted 184 points in its last two games and a defense that can slow down even the best offensive teams in the area, the Tigers are making opposing coaches scratch their heads.

Lehighton’s Trevor Miller was one of those coaches.

“One of the things we had talked about,” said Miller, “was that we had to limit our turnovers to avoid their transition points. Right from the start they were forcing turnovers and built up that 15 point lead and from there, they’re just really good offensively and we couldn’t get back into the game.”

One of the things that Northwestern does best is spread the ball around and get everyone involved in the offense. Friday night against Lehighton seven different players hit shots from beyond the arc and three players were in double digits in scoring with senior Gavin Nelson leading the way with 30 points as the Tigers shut down Lehighton 85-59 in a key Colonial League matchup.

A night earlier, six different players were in double digits with Cannon Fitch coming off the bench to score a career-high 21 points as the Tigers beat Northern Lehigh 99-63.

Nelson’s big night against Lehighton gives him 1,237 career points to move him into second place on the Tigers’ all-time scoring list, surpassing 2005 graduate Ryan Oxley (1,226 points). Steve Showers – class of 2001 – is the all-time scoring leader with 1,451 points.

In the two wins, Shane Marth scored a combined 25 points and Eli Zimmerman contributed 20.

In the win over Lehighton, Zimmerman hit a three-pointer and after a turnover, drove the lane to give the Tigers a 9-2 lead. Zimmerman and Bollinger both scored seven first-quarter points as Northwestern pushed its lead to 26-17 at the end of the first quarter.

“We have a lot of guys who can score on this team and we’re not afraid to share the ball,” said Zimmerman. “The other night we had six different guys in double figures and when you have as many guys as we do that can shoot like that, you’re going to be pretty successful.”

The Tigers looked to push their lead to 30 points early in the fourth quarter to put the running clock into play, but Lehighton continued to battle. With 5:56 left in the game, Nelson drove the lane and got the basket and picked up the foul.

Nelson sank the free throw to put Northwestern up 76-44 to keep the clock rolling the rest of the game.

“Our confidence just keeps building, and we are working really well together,” said Nelson. “We’re going to keep building off these huge wins like tonight, building confidence and building momentum. That’s going to help us once the postseason gets here.”

In its last five games, Northwestern is 59-79 (76 percent) from the free-throw line. During that stretch, Nelson has hit 26 of 30 foul shots for an 87 percent average over those five games and has upped his season percentage to 76 percent. As a team, Northwestern is shooting 67 percent on free throws this season.

“These guys work their tails off and they play really, really hard on the defensive side of the floor and that leads to a little bit easier offense,” said Tiger head coach Pat Wanamaker. “We have a lot of really talented kids, and they buy into everything we ask them to do.

“I just couldn’t be prouder of them and on a night like tonight when everything kind of comes together they seem like a machine out there offensively and defensively.”

Northwestern (14-1 Colonial, 17-2 overall) already has secured playoff spots for both the Colonial League tournament and the District 11 4A tournament.

The Tigers wrap up the regular season schedule this week with games against Moravian Academy (4-11, 4-12) and Jim Thorpe (3-11, 4-14) before the finale Friday night at home against Palmerton (6-10, 7-13).