Much of the battle between Northwestern and Lehighton in Friday’s District 11 quarterfinals came down to a battle of the boards.

Early on, the Indians were winning that battle.

But late in the second quarter, the Tigers put forward a better effort and won the fight inside, and ultimately the game, beating Lehighton 45-31.

The win lifts Northwestern into Monday’s semifinal round against Allentown Central Catholic.

As the second quarter ended, the Tigers were on an 8-0 run and probably wished that they could push halftime back after gathering their first real touch of momentum in the game. The good news for them is that they came out of halftime up 21-15 and scored the first basket of the second half with 5:50 left in quarter No. 3 to finish off a 10-0 run.

“I thought Ethan [Lazarus] and Justin [Holmes] did a better job of getting after the glass as the game went on, but it’s got to be a team effort,” said Northwestern head coach Jerry Lloyd. “We’ve got to have five guys all working hard on the glass.”

Even with the distinct edge in rebounding, Lehighton led by just a 9-7 score at the end of the first quarter. From there, the game bounced around with six lead changes before Northwestern opened its run and didn’t look back. Andres Garrido hit a three-pointer with 2:08 left in the half and followed that up just a minute later with a two-pointer to put the Tigers up 19-15.

The half ended with Nick Henry pulling up for a nice jumper with just three seconds on the clock to give Northwestern its six-point edge at the break.

The Tigers (13-5) really took over the game when they went on another run with six points over the final 2:48 of the third quarter. Dylan Witkowski’s three-pointer with 5:51 left in the third pushed Northwestern to a 37-24 lead, its biggest of the night to that point.

“It’s not like we came out lazy, but they came out very physical and we weren’t quite ready for it,” said Holmes. “We really did pick it up in the second half and once we got more physical on the boards and took away their multiple shots, we just got our offense going.”

The Northwestern offense is one where a different player can take over a game at any given moment. Against Lehighton, it was more of a team effort with balanced scoring.

When everything was added up, the Tigers had a team-high 10 points from Holmes, with Witkowski scoring nine. Cayden Fitch and Garrido both scored seven and Lazarus, who was playing in his first game back from an injury, finished with six.

“I love that about this team,” said Holmes. “You never know who is going to have a big night and tonight, no one really had a big night, but we all had a good amoung of points and that’s pretty much been how our whole season has gone.”

Senior Dylan Guyn finished with a game-high 13 points for Lehighton (11-10) and fellow senior Rich Yturrino had eight.

“They’ve got a ton of guys who can rebound and score points and do everything you need to do to win,” said Lehighton coach Trevor Miller. “They were flying all over the place and we lost some guys in the zone and that created some lanes for them to rebound and to score.”

REVENGE OF THE FOOTBALLERS ... The Northwestern football team is well represented on the basketball roster, so getting to play Central Catholic (14-4) in the semis isn’t lost on several Tigers players. It was the Vikings who ousted the Tigers in last year’s district football playoffs and Holmes, for one, hasn’t forgotten that. “I think those of us who were on the football team are excited to have a shot at them on the basketball court,” said Holmes.

STILL A GOOD SEASON ... Obviously, coach Miller was disappointed, but he was proud of how his players responded this season and that they played 20 games without having one case of COVID interrupt their season. “I explained to them that we accomplished having a full season this year and playing 20 games, not having any issues, is a big testament to them,” said Miller. “They took it seriously and when we look back, we had a heck of a year and I told them that they’re a special group of guys.”

LEHIGHTON

Strauss 0-0-0-0, Hoffman 0-1-3-1, Lutz 0-0-0-0, Schaeffer 0-0-0-0, Lorenz 0-2-2-2, Yturrino 3-2-2-8, Hunsicker 2-0-0-5, Guyn 5-2-3-13, Costenbader 1-0-0-2, Schatz 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 11-7-10-31.

NORTHWESTERN

Fitch 2-1-2-7, Christopher 1-0-1-2, Holmes 3-4-6-10, Henry 2-0-0-4, Heilman 0-0-0-0, Witkowski 3-2-5-9, Lazarus 3-0-0-6, Garrido 3-0-0-7, Kozlowski 0-0-0-0, Shuhay 0-0-0-0, S. Sosnovik 0-0-0-0, A. Sosnovik 0-0-0-0, Osborne 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 17-7-14-45.

Lehighton 7 8 7 9 - 31

Northwestern 9 12 11 13 - 45

Three-pointers: Lehighton - Hunsicker 1, Guyn 1; Northwestern - Fitch 2, Witkowski 1, Garrido 1.