Round one went to the Tigers.

The first of possibly many battles between two of the best teams in the Colonial League this season went as advertised Saturday with the Palmerton and Northwestern girls basketball teams squaring off in an entertaining bout that ended with a nail-biting 43-41 victory for the Tigers.

The first half featured both teams starting with an up-tempo pace, trading multiple-point runs that resulted in five lead changes and four ties.

The Tigers took a 20-19 lead into halftime thanks to an 11-point effort from freshman Natalie Conner that included three three-pointers.

Despite the lead, Northwestern head coach Chris Deutsch wasn’t impressed with his team’s ball management. The game’s up-tempo pace played to Palmerton’s favor as it forced 10 first-half turnovers.

“Sometimes in the heat of the moment and you’re in a big game, sometimes it’s chaotic and sometimes you just forget what you’re supposed to be doing,” said Deutsch.

“I was just reminding them, and I thought we did a good job. Once we executed getting to our spots and doing what we’re supposed to be doing, we got the shots that we wanted to.”

After two quick lead changes to begin the second half, it was a 6-0 run that saw the Tigers take the lead and slow the pace, resulting in only one second-half turnover and a nine-point lead early in the fourth quarter.

Palmerton showed its resiliency as Courtney Connell, who didn’t score in the first half, stepped up with six fourth-quarter points to help the Bombers cut the deficit to three at 42-39.

With four seconds remaining, Palmerton’s Hailey Barry was fouled. The Bombers’ strategy was to make the first free throw, and then miss the second by shooting it off the rim of the basket in an attempt to get an offensive rebound and putback to tie the game.

Barry made her first shot, but unfortunately — as ironic as it sounds — on her second shot, the ball missed the rim and perfectly went through the hoop, allowing the Tigers to get possession of the ball with a 42-41 lead. One last Palmerton foul and free throw by Northwestern’s Brook Balliet ended the game as the Tigers handed the Bombers their first loss of the season.

Palmerton head coach Jeremy Coleman was impressed with his team’s performance in spite of coming up on the losing end.

“We’ve been looking forward to this matchup,” said Coleman. “I thought we were well prepared for them. I thought we did a good job defensively on most of their players. [We] just kind of lost track of [Natalie] Connor a little bit and she hurt us.

“But I was proud of the girls for rebounding after that and fighting back and making it a tight one in the end. Credit to them for that. It’s a good learning experience for them. We’ll look forward to seeing them again, and hopefully have a different outcome.”

Barry led the Bombers with 11 points, followed by Mikayla Pengelly with 10. Connell had an impressive game defensively as she finished with 16 rebounds.

On the other side, Connor stood out with a game-high 22 points, including four three-pointers.

“I’m really happy with how I played today,” Connor said. “I’m glad I was able to make big shots for my team, and I love how my coaches instill so much confidence backing me up.

“Every time I step on there and I have an open shot, they put their confidence in me and tell me to always shoot it right away, and I think that’s why I can make those shots just because I have that confidence behind me backing me up.”

Deutsch made it a point to make sure his players know what needed to be done to have success against a team as good as Palmerton.

“Coach just told us that we need to work on the small things and that started with lockdown defense, each focusing on our girl and then on offense, take our time,” said Balliet, who finished with 11 points.

One of those things Deutsch stressed is shooting free throws at a higher clip.

“We have to execute better from the foul line,” Deutsch said about his team’s 5-of-14 effort from the line. “That’s one thing we work on, and we do it a lot in practice and I guess we’re going to have to keep doing it more. “We can’t do that; we’ve got to finish those shots. We’re going to be in tight games, and we’ve got to be able to make foul shots.

“But I did tell the girls I thought we did a good job defensively to hold them to 41 points ... and I thought we did a good job on their guards. You’re playing a good team. They’re undefeated; they’re 8-0 going into the game and you found a way. Credit Palmerton. They came out and played really hard today, and it was a really close game; it could’ve went either way. But we were fortunate to find a way to pull it out.”

ROUND ONE OF MANY … The two teams will play against each other again on Jan. 31 and possibly in the playoffs. “We could play (Palmerton) three more times this year,” Deutsch said. “We’re going to obviously play one more time in the regular season. We’re probably going to see them somewhere in the league playoffs, and now in districts, they’re in the same classifications we are (4A). So we could see them in district playoffs too.”

PALMERTON

Pengelly 5-0-0-10, Baumgardt 1-1-2-3, Morgan 4-0-0-8, Green 0-0-0-0, Barry 4-2-2-11, Connell 3-3-4-9. TOTALS: 17-6-8-41.

NORTHWESTERN

Balliet 4-1-4-11, Bissell 1-0-0-2, Freeman 0-0-0-0, Thomas 2-1-4-5, Gober 0-1-2-1, N. Conner 8-2-4-22, M. Conner 1-0-0-2, Reinhart 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 16-5-14-43.

Palmerton 10 9 7 15 - 41

N’western 10 10 12 11 - 43

Three-Pointers: Northwestern - N. Connor 4, Balliet 2; Palmerton - Barry 1.

Records: Northwestern (9-1; 7-0 CL); Palmerton (8-1; 8-1 CL).