There is a lot of familiarity between the Lehighton and Northwestern boys basketball programs. There are few secrets, if any, between the coaching staffs. When the two teams battle, it always comes down to execution. On Saturday afternoon, it was the Indians who had more shots fall.

Lehighton staved off a late-game surge by Northwestern and hung on for a 55-50 win in a nonleague game at Northwestern Lehigh High School.

“We do know Coach [Rich] Oertner well,” Northwestern head coach Billy Hallman said. “With Coach [Pat] Wanamaker playing for him and Sam [Yadush] growing up there. We see each other a lot over the summer. We talk. We kind of know what each other is going to do. It’s no surprise. We know what to expect.”

The beginning of the contest was not what anyone was expecting as both teams were scoreless the first four minutes of the game until Lehighton broke the scoreless tie with 3:45 left in the first quarter. Northwestern (5-10 overall, 3-9 Colonial League) tied it at two in its next possession, but scored only two more points the remainder of the opening period.

Trailing 32-22 at the half, Northwestern flipped the switch on the court in the third quarter. The Tigers finished the frame on a 10-0 scoring run and had a defensive effort to back it up. The Colonial League squad cut the deficit drastically as the scoreboard read 43-41 in favor of Lehighton heading into the fourth quarter.

“We just told them they needed to go out and take it personal,” Hallman said of his message to his team at the half. “They just needed to play basketball. We were doing a lot of good things, but they weren’t 100 percent committed. They bought in in the third quarter and they saw the difference.”

Senior Trevor Cunningham scored his lone bucket of the game with 7:08 left in the contest, which knotted it at 43-43. A few possessions later, Northwestern took its first lead of the game since the first quarter when Sam Seyfried knocked down a baseline jumper to give the Tigers a 45-44 advantage with 6:01 left.

Lehighton tied the score at 48-48 thanks to an old-fashioned three-point play by Andre McDowell, who finished with 15 points. With three minutes remaining, Sam Seyfried took a rebound and went coast-to-coast for a layup to give the Tigers a 50-48 lead. The Indians tied it at 50 a few possessions later and then with 1:37 remaining took a 51-50 lead thanks to a foul shot which led to the victory.

“They made a couple more shots [than we did],” Hallman said about the difference down the stretch. “We had some good looks, looks that we wanted, but they just didn’t fall. That was it.”

Lehighton senior Damian Mele led all scorers with a game-high 18 points. Northwestern’s offense was powered by sophomore Devin Thomas, who finished with a team-high 13 points. Rob Seyfried and Yadush both finished with 10 points each.

Despite the loss and Lehighton bringing in a record of 10-3 and 5-2, Cunningham felt the game was a winnable one.

“I think we definitely could have come out with a win against that team,” he said. “They are a very good basketball team, but I think we could have won … the coaches always say we are one possession away from contending with the top teams. We are going to work to build off of this.”

Northwestern visits Palmerton on Friday and Pen Argyl on Jan. 31. Both games are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.