The Northwestern boys basketball team had to sit idly by through the opening weekend of the high school basketball season and wait until Monday to get onto the court. Unfortunately, their debut came up short in a 45-38 loss to Saucon Valley. Much of the night was spent with Northwestern shots looking like they might fall only to take a wrong bounce and avoid going through the net.

The Panthers (1-1 overall, 1-0 Colonial) opened a 7-0 lead to start the game, with Northwestern not getting its first shot to drop until there was just 1:24 left in the first quarter.

A basket by Andres Garrido broke a string of 14 straight missed shots for Northwestern Lehigh. The shooting futility lasted the rest of the night, with a few moments when it appeared the Tigers may break out of the slump and get things straightened out. By halftime, Saucon Valley had opened up a 24-14 lead and never really looked back from there.

“We just couldn’t throw it in the ocean tonight,” lamented Northwestern head coach Billy Hallman. “Defensively, we did what we wanted to do, but our offense just was off the mark all night.”

The Saucon Valley defense played an aggressive game and consistently seemed to know where the ball was going and stepped into passing lanes to disrupt the Tiger offense. That appeared to take Northwestern (0-1, 0-1) out of its game somewhat and left the Tigers trying to improvise a little too much.

“I think that disrupted the guys a little bit and got us out of where we wanted to run our offense,” said Hallman. “We didn’t adjust to that early and I think that led to a little bit of us pressing, which we didn’t really need to do, especially early in the game.”

Sean McCann and Andres Garrido led Northwestern with 11 points each, while Brandon Binn, Ryan Lebo and Colin Zyck each scored nine for the Panthers. Zyck scored four of his points from the foul line down the stretch as Northwestern tried to use fouls to climb back into the game. Saucon Valley hit seven of 16 foul shots in the fourth quarter.

Northwestern made a third-quarter run to get back into the game. McCann hit a three-pointer with just under two minutes left to cut Saucon Valley’s lead to just two at 26-24. From there, Saucon Valley closed out the quarter with a 5-0 run and made it an 8-0 run early in the third quarter when Zyck hit a three-pointer that made it 34-24.

Northwestern again battled back, but Zyck’s foul shooting kept the Tigers at bay, giving Saucon Valley the win.

“We’ve just got to get back into the gym and work hard at practice and get ready for Palmerton. That’s all we can do,” said Hallman. “I told them that we can’t hang our heads, we’ve just go to get going again, which is what I like about the schedule. We have one day to work on things and then get right back on the court.”

After Wednesday’s road game at Palmerton (1-1, 1-0), Northwestern has its home opener Friday night against Southern Lehigh (2-1, 1-0) and then a nonconference game at home against Brandywine Heights (2-0, 0-0 Berks County 3) on Saturday.