For the third time this season, the Northwestern girls basketball team will face its nemesis, the Southern Lehigh Spartans.

This time, the game will have even more meaning as the two teams meet in the semifinals of the Colonial League playoffs.

As the number-two seed in the tournament, the Lady Spartans (19-3) had a bye through the quarterfinals, while Northwestern downed Moravian Academy 61-29.

The semifinal, which was originally scheduled for Tuesday, was postponed twice and as of Wednesday morning was slated to be played Thursday at Whitehall High School.

In the win over the Lady Lions on Saturday, Northwestern (20-3) pulled away early, withstood a second-quarter rally and then pulled away again to take a 61-29 win and advance to semifinals matchup against Southern Lehigh.

The Tigers moved out to a 17-0 start and held Moravian Academy (12-11) scoreless until there were just 24 seconds left in the first quarter. Based on how the game was going, nobody would have guessed it at the time, but that basket started a 13-0 run that saw the Lions cut the lead down to just four when Tori Spugnardi hit a layup to make it 17-13 with 2:51 left in the first half.

From there, the momentum swung back to the Tigers, who scored the next five points in the game to make it 22-13 with 1:30 left and they carried a 22-15 lead into the break.

“We got a little sloppy in the second quarter,” said Northwestern head coach Chris Deutsch. “I thought we played well in the first quarter, sloppy in the second and then picked it up in the second half. O’Connor made some plays and Moser hit some shots, so give them credit. We found a way to move on and that’s what it’s all about at this point.”

Northwestern, the third seed in the league playoffs, used the hot hand of Sydney Sevrain to mount a 15-0 run that saw Sevrain drain nine points during a stretch of just over four-minutes from midway through the third quarter into the first minute of the fourth quarter.

The rally was highlighted by a Sevrain three-pointer and Alex Lister’s steal of the inbounds pass for a quick two-pointer. By that point, Northwestern led 44-22 and had the game pretty well put away.

“We always get it to whoever has the best shot to hit, that’s how we work,” said Sevrain, who finished with a game-high 18 points.

The game featured a total of 49 turnovers – 31 of which were by Moravian Academy - with the Lions turning the ball over eight times by midway through the first quarter. Moravian Academy, playing without Maya Ettle, its six-foot, four-inch center, had no answer for the size of the Northwestern team.

The Tigers found themselves in foul trouble and having to go to their bench earlier in the game than they would have liked.

The upside to the situation was that Deutsch got quality minutes out of younger players while resting starters. Emily Sekerak finished with four fouls, while Sevrain, Lister and Sage Christopher all had three by the end of the night.

“What I thought was a key to the win was the girls coming off of the bench,” said Deutsch. “You have Kate Betz, Tess Ledeboer, Maggie Motolese. We needed minutes because our girls were in foul trouble and those girls did a good job maintaining the lead and I thought that was huge.”

While Moravian Academy was without Ettle, Northwestern’s Kailyn Jones missed most of the game after aggravating a sore knee. She was limping noticeably during warm-ups for the second half and it’s unclear when she’ll be able to return to the court.

Jones is averaging four points per game for Northwestern, but is credited with being one of the tougher defensive players on the team.

The winner of the game between Southern Lehigh and Northwestern will face the winner of the game between Bangor (15-5) and Notre Dame of Green Pond (20-2).

In another note, Sage Christopher was selected to play in the Via All-Star Classic, scheduled for March 30 at Northampton Community College. Deutsch was selected to coach the girls west team, which will feature his star senior player. The game matches seniors from high schools from around the the area to raise funds for Via.