After two losses to open the season, Palmerton head coach Leigh Keenan patiently awaited the arrival of his team's potential to arrive.

Finally, after five halves of play, the third-year coach can finally roll out the welcome mat.The Blue Bombers used a strong team effort to stifle Northwestern and notched their first win of the season, 68-56, in a Colonial League showdown.Some nifty fast breaks and long-range precision for the Tigers yielded a 39-27 halftime lead over the Bombers. Eventually, though, led by Mason Stahler, Spencer Hay, Garrett Perschy and Joey Suto off the bench, the winners outscored their opponent 41-17 in the second half to pull away."It's a tremendous feeling to get the win," Keenan admitted. "It makes it an entirely different season and I'm extremely happy. But a kid like (Garrett) Perschy, who won't allow his teammates to get down, and Joey (Suto), who lit it up from three and both made precision passes, made the difference."Coming in to the contest, both coaches were aware of the game plans that they needed to maintain in order to prevail.Northwestern's Billy Hallman wanted to run with fast breaks, while Keenan's plan was to pound it down low. They both were trying to establish that foothold to increase their team's chances of winning."We got away from our game, which is getting up and down the floor," Hallman said afterward. "We stopped running and they were able to slow it down and pound it inside. We struggled down low against them and also, we couldn't make free throws.""After starting out the season 0-2, our team chemistry wasn't where we thought it would be to start the season," Hay stated. "Finally, this game was one where we showed a lot of that chemistry, a lot of heart and we pulled out the win, even though it didn't look like it was going to be good at the half."In fact, after Northwestern took a 16-14 edge after one, the Tigers turned on the "run" and four straight fast break lay-ups by Dustin Snyder, along with 12 points from Parker Jones ballooned the lead to 39-27 at intermission.In the third quarter, they continued that strategy and with a 42-35 lead, the Bombers' Suto (14 points, six assists), came in off the bench to nail consecutive treys, feed Zach Svetik on a give-and-go for a three-point play, and followed that with a nice dish to Stahler on the low block, giving the Bombers the lead for good."If I have to come in off the bench, it's definitely motivation to come in and do better," Suto said. "I look and see what the best option is for our team and I just like to get us the points, so if the shot's not there for me, I'm going to give it up to the player that has the better shot."In the JV game, Northwestern used 18 points from Sam Yadush for a 53-46 preliminary win.BOMBER BIGS ... The inside game of the Bombers, in Hay and Stahler, proved to be a big factor, as Hay led the winners with 20 points, while Stahler followed with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Perschy led the winners with 12 boards, as his team out-rebounded the Tigers 51-27 in the contest.TIGER TRACKS ... Leading the way for Northwestern was Parker Jones, who led all scorers with a game-high 23 points, including five triples. Meanwhile, Dustin Snyder and Robert Seyfried both added 10 apiece.SIMILAR STANDINGS ... Both teams currently stand at 1-2 overall in the young season. Northwestern plays host to Hamburg tonight and Palmerton waits for a non-league contest with Panther Valley Saturday at 1 p.m.NORTHWESTERNYadush 1-0-0-3, Mengel 1-3-6-5, Jones 7-4-6-23, Snyder 5-0-2-10, Fatzinger 1-0-0-2, Fager 0-0-0-0, McCann 0-1-3-1, Seyfried 5-0-3-10, Hess 0-0-0-0, Lobach 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 21-8-20-56.PALMERTONHay 8-4-7-20, Svetik 2-3-3-7, Papay 0-0-0-0, Suto 6-0-0-14, Perschy 1-2-2-4, Andress 0-0-0-0, Stasko 1-1-2-4, Stahler 7-5-7-19. TOTALS: 25-15-21-68.N'western 16 23 6 11 - 56Palmerton 14 13 21 20 - 68Three pointers: NW - Jones 5, Yadush 1; P - Suto 2, Stasko 1.