The Northwestern Lehigh girls basketball team has a younger roster than it has in past years. But it hasn’t been a problem in the early going of the season and the Tigers are off to a 4-0 start in Colonial League play and are 5-1 overall.

The first three Colonial League teams Northwestern faced have a combined record of 3-16 this season, but the difficulty of the schedule went up in game four.

Northwestern had to play on back-to-back nights with the second of the two games at Catasauqua, which entered the game at 3-0. W

The Tigers had crossed the 50-point plateau for the fifth time in six games this season, picking up a 56-51 win over the Rough Riders.

Natalie Conner has led Northwestern in scoring every game this season and put up 17 against Catty. Olivia Reinhart finished with 16 points, just one point shy of her career high.

A night before beating the Rough Riders, Northwestern hosted Southern Lehigh and beat the Spartans 57-30. Conner, a sophomore, led the team with 25 points. Eliana Marques led Southern Lehigh with 13 points, including hitting three shots from beyond the arc.

Five different players scored for the Tigers in the first quarter as they opened up a 22-9 lead by the end of the first quarter. In the second quarter, Northwestern went ahead 34-18. Senior Natalie Conner scored seven of her 11 points in the third quarter for Northwestern.

“We have a lot of girls who are really good on this team,” said Natalie Conner. “So I never feel like I have to be the one taking shots or have to carry this team. I think we do a good job of spreading the ball around and I have faith in all of my teammates because we have all worked so hard together.”

Much of the fourth quarter belonged to the Lady Tigers as they put up nine unanswered points and opened up their largest lead of the game at 57-26 with 1:45 left in regulation.

Northwestern has hit 32 three-pointers in its first five games this season. With four three-pointers in the game, Conner has 13 baskets from three-point land and Emma Freeman upped her total to seven, adding a three-pointer in the win over Southern Lehigh.

“It’s important for us to be able to get points from anywhere on the court,” said Natalie Conner. “We have some girls who are tough right around the basket and others who shoot from outside, so that’s going to help us because teams might be able to stop us from scoring one way, but not the other way.”

Deutsch has been able to use the early games to get young players some opportunities on the court. With five freshmen players on the roster, and four of them being the first ones off the bench, the chance for them to get early playing time has been a big plus for the team.

“It’s a big jump going from playing middle school to varsity,” said Deutsch. “Because they’re playing as eighth graders and playing against some younger players and now they’re facing juniors and seniors on the court.”

Both Deutsch and Conner talked about how close the players have become in the early part of the season and how much fun the team is having playing together.