After a double overtime loss to Catasauqua last Wednesday, the Northwestern boys basketball team was eager to get back on the court and bounce back from its first loss of the season.

The Tigers did just that Friday night when they beat Brandywine 46-34 in a nonleague game that was played a day early because of Saturday’s snowfall.

“It’s good to get a win,” said Northwestern head coach Billy Hallman. “Wednesday was a tough one. I’m glad they moved the game up to [Friday] so we could get it in.”

The Tigers fell behind by a point just before halftime but responded in the third quarter when freshmen Deven Bollinger and Luke Hallman combined for 12 of the team’s 18 points in the period. Northwestern headed to the fourth quarter with a 31-21 lead.

After going 0-for-11 from the field in the second quarter, the Tigers made seven of 13 shots in the third quarter.

“We have a lot of young guys and this is a new atmosphere for them,” said senior Rob Seyfried, who scored a game-high 13 points. “They just had to settle down a little bit. Sometimes it can get chaotic out there. Once they calm down and we start getting in our offense we’re fine.”

Host Brandywine came back from an 11-5 deficit after a quarter to take a 14-13 lead with just three seconds left in the first half.

“I challenged them at halftime to go out and be aggressive on the offensive end,” said Billy Hallman. “We have a lot of new pieces this year, a lot of guys that don’t have varsity experience and we needed them to step up. In the second half they came out and were aggressive. That’s how we have to play.”

The Bullets turned the ball over three times in the first two minutes of the third quarter and Northwestern capitalized. Luke Hallman hit a pair of three-pointers in the third quarter. Bollinger made two baskets and his two free throws with 2:25 left in the period put the Tigers ahead 29-19, their largest lead of the game to that point.

A three-point play from Seyfried gave Northwestern a 34-21 lead early in the fourth quarter and Brandywine never got closer than 12 points the rest of the way.

The Tigers are off to a 2-1 start with a win over Palisades and a double overtime loss to Catasauqua. The Tigers have two freshmen starters (Hallman and Bollinger), along with one sophomore (returning point guard Sam Yadush) and a senior that didn’t play varsity basketball last year in Trevor Cunningham.

Seyfried, the team’s leading scorer last season, is by far the team’s most experience varsity player.

“Even last year we put so much on his shoulders,” said Billy Hallman. “He works his tail off and it rubs off on the other guys. He’s not vocal leader. Trevor’s a vocal guy. He had a lot of success on the football field and the guys respect him for that. And he’s been around. He just took last year off.”

Seyfried likes how the young group is shaping up so far this season.

“They’re young but they’ve been playing basketball their whole lives so my expectations are the same as if they were seniors,” he said. “I try to show myself as a leader on this team because I do have the most experience. I just try to play hard and work hard at practice and hope the young guys will follow my lead.”

The Tigers got a balanced scoring effort against Brandywine, with Yadush adding 10 points while Bollinger had nine points. Northwestern out-rebounded Brandywine 34-25 with Bollinger and Yadush each pulling down nine boards while Seyfried grabbed 11.

“We feel good,” said Billy Hallman. “With the youth we weren’t sure what we were going to get. The Catty game did sting, but we’re only going to get better from a game like that.

“We’re real excited. They worked hard this summer. We played in all the tournaments. We took them out to West Virginia to kind of expose them to this level. They haven’t shied away from it. They’re ready to go. We’ve got some younger guys on the bench that are ready. We’re excited about the youth. They’ve blended well and the older guys have taken them in, which is nice.”