Remember when mom and dad would say you weren’t allowed to leave the house until your chores were done? They got done pretty quickly after that. That seemed to be the approach that Northwestern took against Pottsville recently.

The starters came out, got their work done, and then handed things over to younger players who finished the job.

Sophomore Natalie Conner picked up 21 of her game-high 29 points in the first half, helping to lead the Lady Tigers to a 33-11 lead at halftime.

Northwestern’s defense did its chores well as Pottsville scored single-digit points in each of the first three quarters.

The nonleague win put Northwestern at 9-1 this season overall. It also sent the Tigers into an extended holiday break that has them off for 10 days before they return on Saturday to play at Notre Dame of Green Pond.

“Our defense has been really locked in,” said head coach Chris Deutsch. “We’ve played some teams that were pretty hot when we faced them, a team like Palmerton, and our girls have gone out and they seem determined both defensively and on offense to do a good job.”

Against Pottsville, Northwestern had a run of 35 unanswered points that stretched from the second quarter into the third quarter.

One of the players that Deutsch pointed to in helping the defense was senior Emma Freeman. As an underclassman Freeman was known for hitting three-pointers.

Freeman has worked on defense and has become one of the better defensive players for Northwestern. That transition has been important for Northwestern because they are blessed with players who can score but needed someone to help defensively to keep opponents off the board.

“She has been a lot more active defensively,” said Deutsch. “Her scoring is down, but she has shown some signs of breaking out of her shooting slump and we would love to see her get going. Even when she’s not scoring though, she is getting rebounds, forcing turnovers and deflecting shots, so she is still contributing at a high level just in a different way.”

Mallory Conner has also been a contributor defensively and put together a stretch of five straight games where she had eight or more rebounds for Northwestern.

In addition to Natalie Conner’s 29 points, which was a career high for her, senior Olivia Reinhart scored seven points and provided defense down low for Northwestern. Mallory Conner chipped in with five points.

The Tigers return to the court Saturday when they travel to play Notre Dame of Green Pond.

The Crusaders opened the season with a stretch of tough games and came out of their first three contests without a win. Since then, they have rattled off six straight wins to go 6-3 overall and 5-1 in the Colonial League. From there, Northwestern will host the Wilson Warriors (6-3 overall, 4-3 Colonial) on Monday.