The Northwestern Lehigh boys basketball took a big early lead that grew larger as the game went on, while also holding North Schuylkill to just 28 points, the lowest total allowed by Northwestern all season, in a 60-28 win in the District 11 4A semifinals at William Allen High School.

While the whole team contributed, three seniors put on a master class on basketball in the first quarter.

Mason Bollinger, Malachi Coleman, and Cannon Fitch scored 22 of the team’s 24 first quarter points. In a span of 1:18 all three of them hit a three-pointer to change a five-point deficit to a 9-5 lead with 5:13 left in the first quarter.

After Xavier McNally, Schuylkill’s 6-foot-7 sophomore, got his first basket of the night, Northwestern scored 15 unanswered points and led 24-9 by the end of the first quarter.

Much of the Tigers’ scoring came on assists from junior Brady Krimmel.

“Brady is kind of our floor general out there,” said Coleman. “He was really on tonight and a lot of our scoring came from things that he did to make things happen. We executed really well tonight, and it was big for us to get an early lead and take a little pressure off ourselves.”

The Spartans got the ball to McNally in the second quarter and he picked up nine points.

“They started to get the ball to him down low,” said Northwestern head coach Patrick Wanamaker. “And he went on a little run in the second quarter, so we made some adjustments at halftime and we were able to take care of him the rest of the way. We watched him play against Beca the other night and we saw what he can do, so we knew we had to focus on him and try to contain him.”

Contain him they did as the putback just before the end of the half was the last basket McNally scored in the game.

Northwestern put the game away in the third quarter.

The first 14 points of the quarter were scored by the Tigers. Bollinger scored 11 of his game-high 21 points within a 3:55 span and Northwestern didn’t allow a basket until there was just 2:01 left in the quarter.

Northwestern’s pushed its advantage in the game to 49-27 going into the final quarter.

“A lot of that quarter was really my teammates,” said Bollinger. “I was able to get open, but they got the ball to me and put me in a position to help the team. We did a great job of moving the ball tonight and finding the open man.”

The Tigers put the game into running clock mode when Fitch, who was 5-for-5 at the foul line, hit a pair of free throws to make it 58-27 with 2:25 left to play.

Northwestern meets Central Catholic in the district title game for the second straight year. The Vikings beat the Tigers last year.

The game is set for Friday night back at Allen High School and scheduled as the second game of a doubleheader. Two EPC foes, Easton and Emmaus will play the 6A championship followed by Northwestern and Central Catholic.