Two of Northwestern Lehigh’s prize young players stood on the baseline nursing ankle injuries before the start of the Lady Tigers quarterfinal game against Northern Lehigh Saturday night. Freshman Hannah Gober (4.6 points per game) and sophomore Cara Thomas (11.3 PPG) were both out of the lineup for Northwestern, but their next girl up philosophy overcame the two bad ankles.

Sophomore Paige Bissell started in place of Thomas and finished with six points in the game. Perhaps her most important basket was her first, which came just over one minute into the game and put the Lady Tigers up 4-0.

“It helped me to calm down and I think that it helped my team get some momentum,” said Bissell of her first basket. “I was a little nervous coming in because I knew I had a big role to fill because Cara is such a good player. You also have to credit the other girls that stepped up for us tonight.”

The game was tight until an 11-0 run spanned the final six minutes of the first quarter and opened things up. The run was the Sevrain and Bissell Show as senior Paige Sevrain and Bissell picked up all 11 of the points. Sevrain scored eight of her 12 points during that run and Bissell had the other three.

A trio of three-pointers in the second quarter shut down the Bulldogs. Brook Balliet nailed a three to make it 20-3 with 4:48 left in the first half and later, Nina Miller and Emma Freeman hit on longballs, pushing the score to 31-11 at halftime.

“It was a good team win,” said Tiger head coach Chris Deutsch. “ I thought we got off to a good start. Paige Bissell did a great job because we haven’t started her all year and she came off the bench and really did a nice job. We always tell the girls that it’s next girl up and I thought Paige really stepped up for us.”

With the teams combining for just six points in the third quarter, Northwestern’s lead stood at 33-15 going into the final eight minutes. Deutsch cleared the bench in the fourth quarter and freshman Riley McGinley continued to wield a hot hand by scoring eight fourth-quarter points as the Lady Tigers picked up the win.

“We had a big contribution from everyone on the team,” said Sevrain. “It wasn’t just a couple of girls tonight. Everyone who got on the court did something to help, whether it was scoring, rebounds, assists or just playing good defense.”

Sevrain led Northwestern Lehigh with 12 points, while McGinley and Miller both netted eight. Bulldog junior Aubrey Pollard, who scored 14 against Northwestern when the two teams met just eight days earlier, was held to seven and teammate Katelyn Barthold finished with six. Pollard had 12 rebounds for the Dawgs, while Sevrain had nine.

Originally, Northwestern Lehigh had appeared to win the tiebreaker for a quarterfinal bye, but the fourth tiebreaker between the Tigers and Palmerton (20-3) was applying the District 11 power ranking formula to just the Colonial League portion of the schedule. The formula rewards wins against a team with a higher classification, which meant that Palmerton’s win over the Tigers counted more heavily than the Northwestern win over the Bombers since Palmerton is a 3A school and Northwestern Lehigh is 4A.

With Palmerton grabbing the top seed and Notre Dame earning the second seed based on winning the East Division, the Tigers were pushed the third and had to play in the quarterfinal round while the Crusaders and Bombers got some rest.