CATASAUQUA - Northwestern Lehigh and Bangor were riding the waves Wednesday night at Catasauqua High School.

No, the Rough Riders do not have a new indoor water park; they were just playing the gracious host to the Colonial League semifinal contest between the two schools.

It’s safe to say the teams created their own waves of momentum that went from one side to the other.

First, it was Northwestern riding high, until the Slaters found a gnarly wave to ride and took it all the way the end of the first quarter.

The final wave, however, was the biggest, and the Tigers stayed at the height of the wave for the second quarter and rode it all the way to the shore on their way to a 48-40 win.

The wave that took the Tigers to victory came in the form of a 22-point second-quarter performance that put them up 31-23 at halftime, and saw them eventually stretch their edge to 12 points late in the fourth quarter.

“I just thought that we made better decisions, executed a little bit better,” said Northwestern head coach Chris Deutsch about weathering some earlier struggles to come through with a big second quarter. “We did a good job of getting Paige Sevrain the ball, and I thought that our other girls stepped up.

“Brynn Balliet and Nina Miller came off the bench and they all contributed. I also must congratulate Maci Fisher, because she had an unbelievable game tonight; she was really good for us tonight.”

Early on, Sevrain found a home positioning herself right around the basket, but the Slaters did a respectable job of closing that loophole and the Tigers (20-4) started to sputter a bit as the Bangor defense got tougher.

Enter freshman Cara Thomas, who started nailing shots, and suddenly Sevrain’s opening started to reappear. Sevrain and Thomas combined to score 17 points in the second quarter for Northwestern.

Defensively, it was Thomas and Fisher who shut down opportunities for Bangor. On back-to-back possessions, Thomas poked the ball away from a player and raced unabated down the court for an easy layup. Fisher spent her time blocking shots and pulling down rebounds to further frustrate the Slaters.

“After the first quarter, the coaches just told us that if you play well, you will win,” said Thomas of what helped to turn the game in Northwestern’s favor. “They reassured us that there was nothing to worry about, and told us to just play your game, and you’ll see the results.”

Bangor used a 9-0 scoring run in the first quarter to lead by five after Madeline Stout hit a pair of free throws with :41 left. After the words of wisdom from Northwestern’s coaching staff, the Tigers went on a 10-4 run to go up by three. Thomas hit two free throws with 2:31 left in the first half to make it 30-20 in favor of Northwestern.

The teams played evenly the rest of the way, but the damage was already done, and Bangor (16-7) got no closer than seven points.

The Slaters failed to help themselves when their foul shooting wiped out late in the game. After going 4-for-5 from the line in the first half, they hit on just 2-of-9 attempots in the second.

“I think we are starting to peak, which is very good,” said Sevrain, who finished with a game-high 19 points. “Our defense started the season playing really well, and it started to get even better as the season progressed. I think that’s a big thing for us.”

SAME THING, ONLY DIFFERENT ... Last year, Northwestern won the Colonial League championship with a 49-35 win over Palmerton. Back then, the Tigers were the top seed, and the Blue Bombers were the three seed. This season, the two teams will meet again for the league title with their seedings reversed. Not only did that game give Northwestern its first league title in years, but Deutsch also picked up his 300th-career coaching win in that game.

A BIG DIFFERENCE ... Northwestern downed Bangor 64-44 during the regular season, with Thomas hitting for a season-high 20 points and Sevrain banking 22. This time around, the dynamic duo scored 16 and 19, respectively. One of the keys for Northwestern was shutting down senior Mac Karner, who scorched the Tigers for 24 points in the regular season meeting, but was held to just four in the semifinal. Julia Pinter and Avery Nelson led the Slaters with nine points each in this meeting.

BANGOR

Stout 0-2-2-2, Pinter 4-1-2-9, Mendez 0-0-0-0, Holland 2-1-2-6, Gonzalez 0-0-0-0, Ohland 2-0-3-4, Karner 1-2-5-4, Nelson 3-0-0-9, Toth 3-0-0-6. TOTALS: 15-6-14-40.

NORTHWESTERN

Bro. Balliet 1-0-3-3, Miller 0-0-0-0, Bry. Balliet 1-1-2-3, Thomas 5-6-9-16, Fisher 2-0-1-4, Dorney 1-1-2-3, Sevrain 8-3-4-19. TOTALS: 18-11-21-48.

Bangor 12 11 8 9 - 40

Northwestern 9 22 9 8 - 48

Three-pointers: Bangor - Nelson 3, Holland 1; Northwestern - Bro. Balliet 1.