The Northwestern Lehigh girls basketball team opened 2026 with a pair of losses to good teams.

Since then, the Tigers have strung together seven straight wins, including two against new rival Lehighton.

The Indians are in their second season in the Colonial League. The two teams are likely to meet in the upcoming postseason for both a league title and a district title.

Northwestern hosted another rival Northern Lehigh last week.

The Tigers hit seven three-pointers to beat the Bulldogs 54-28. Natalie Conner scored 20 points in the win as both she and sister Mallory Conner connected on a pair of three-pointers. Another sister duo each had one three-pointer as Charlotte and Hannah Gober took their turns hitting from beyond the arc.

Charlotte, a freshman, scored 12 points.

Friday night Lehighton came to Northwestern a week after the Tigers handed the Indians their first loss of the season in overtime.

Natalie Conner scored two points in the first half last Friday and poured in 16 in the second half of Northwestern’s 43-42 win.

“To be honest, I was down on myself,” she said. “I knew it was going to be a long game that was going to come down to the last second and if I can’t make any shots, then I’m going to get every rebound and I am going to make every defensive play. It wasn’t just about offense. It was rebounding, defense, everything.”

Conner and senior teammate Olivia Reinhart played a big role in the second-half success.

“We really tried to establish Liv Reinhart,” said Tiger head coach Chris Deutsch. “And we ran a new play that we had not shown all year. We put it in just for this game and Liv got us going there a little bit in the second half. We wanted to get her some shots in the post, and I thought she did a good job of getting those.”

The Tigers tailed at halftime, 21-18, and even with Conner and Reinhart combining for 11 points, fell behind 35-29 after three quarters.

Opening the fourth, Conner scored seven points in a 55-second span to put Northwestern up 36-35. A 12-3 run that covered almost six minutes of game time put the Tigers up 49-38 with 3:05 left in regulation.

Trailing by a point Lehighton’s Ava Serfass passed to Breille Parliman for a lay up to put the Indians up 42-41 with 1:45 left to play. Lehighton was bringing the ball up and Emma Freeman stole the ball and drove to the basket for a layup to regain the lead for Northwestern at 43-42 with 1:00 remaining in regulation.

“As soon as we went into the press,” said Freeman, “I just saw how they were setting up, and I saw her eyeing up to skip pass. I just gave it my all because we were still behind at that point and I knew I had to try to get the steam. The layup was a little nerve-racking because those wide-open layups can be difficult when you are under that much pressure, but I was able to finish it. It felt really good to help my team like that.”

Just as in the first meeting, Lehighton had a chance for a late three-pointer, but it bounced off the rim and was rebounded by Freeman as the buzzer sounded.