Palmerton continued its recent regular season mastery of Northwestern with a 33-30 victory girls basketball victory on Tuesday.

Despite winning the Colonial League playoff championship a year ago, the Tigers suffered a pair of regular season losses to the Bombers.

On Tuesday night, Palmerton made it three consecutive regular season wins over Northwestern behind 15 points from senior Bethie Morgan, including a key three-pointer late in the game to put her team ahead, 28-27. Megan Matsko took things over from there for Palmerton with five points over the final minute of play, including a drive to the basket where she not only sank the shot, but picked up a foul. Matsko made the freebie to put Palmerton up by five and seal the victory.

“We thought it would be a close game, and we wanted to step up the defense because we thought if we could take some time off the clock offensively and not give them the ball so many times, we would have a chance,” said Palmerton coach Dan Beck. “The girls came through and played very well for us.

“Our defense right now is playing well, and the girls have bought into our plans.”

Northwestern (0-1 Colonial, 1-1 overall) led during the early stages of the game and twice in the first half had leads of six points.

Paige Bissell hit a shot to put the Tigers up 15-9 with 3:40 left in the half, only to have Hannah Barry hit one of two free throws, and Sydney Frantz buried a three to cut the Tigers lead to 15-13 at the break.

Palmerton tied the game early in the third quarter on a drive to the basket by Frantz, and took its first lead when Barry hit on a three-point attempt for a 20-17 edge. Northwestern was not going to fade away though as it scored the next five points to go back on top before Morgan hit her second of three three-pointers on the night to give Palmerton a 23-22 lead going into the final quarter.

Both teams relied on defense early in the fourth quarter as over three minutes passed before Palmerton’s Frantz put up the period’s initial points with 4:50 left to play, putting the Bombers up 25-22. Northwestern again refused to go away and tied the game when freshman Hannah Gober drained a three to tie the game and Paige Sevrain hit two foul shots to put Northwestern Lehigh up 27-25 with 2:20 left to play.

Northwestern coach Chris Deutsch took a timeout to set up his defense, but Palmerton beat some pressure and got the ball to Morgan, who worked her magic to put her team up 28-27 with 2:07 left on the clock.

“My shot hasn’t been on lately, and I was still off a little at the beginning of this game,” said Morgan. “My teammates kept working the ball around and I was open. If it had been any of the other girls in that same position, they would have drained it, too, but I happened to be the open girl.”

Northwestern’s Gober hit the first end of a one-and-one but missed the second. With the game tied, Matsko began her five-point run that she capped with a three-point play that made it 33-28 with just :22 left in regulation.

Bissell hit a little pull-up jumper with :06 left to cut the lead to 33-30. The Tigers got the ball back when they forced a jumped ball with the possession arrow in their favor. But a traveling violation ended the possession and allowed the Bombers to move to 2-0 on the season in both the Colonial League and overall.

“We beat them twice last year but then lost in the Colonial League finals, so we know that this doesn’t guarantee anything, but it’s still big for us to get this win even though it is still very early,” said Morgan. “It’s great to start the year with two wins.”

MISSING

... For the second game in a row, Northwestern did not have its full starting lineup in place. In Saturday’s win over Whitehall, it was without Brook Balliet and Bissell. Tuesday, the flu bug started to hit the team and they were without starters Maci Fisher and Cara Thomas. “We tell the girls, ‘No excuses.’ We always play with who we have, and you have to credit Palmerton because they did more tonight than we did,” said Northwestern coach Chris Deutsch.

DECISION MADE

... Northwestern senior Paige Sevrain has chosen Bloomsburg University over two other potential choices. “I just felt really welcomed at Bloomsburg. I liked the girls, they were amazing, and I also liked the coach, she was amazing, too,” said Sevrain, who finished the game with 11 points and 15 rebounds and is 86 points shy of the 1,000-point milestone.

PALMERTON

Morgan 6-0-3-15, Frantz 3-0-0-7, Matsko 3-1-2-7, Barry 1-1-2-4, Pengelly 0-0-0-0, K. Balliet 0-0-0-0, Connell 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 13-2-7-33.

NORTHWESTERN

Sevrain 3-5-6-11, B. Balliet 3-1-1-9, Bissell 3-0-0-6, H. Gober 1-1-2-4, Fenstermaker 0-0-2-0, Miller 0-0-0-0, McGinley 0-0-0-0. TOTALS 10-7-11-30.

Palmerton 5 8 10 10 - 33

Northwestern 8 7 7 8 - 30

Three-Pointers: Palmerton – Morgan 3, Frantz 1, Barry 1. Northwesrern – B. Balliet 2, H. Gober 1.