Northwestern Lehigh and Lehighton met three times in the 2025-2026 basketball season.

Adding up the final scores of the three games, the math comes out to a tie with both teams scoring 143 points. Northwestern won the two regular season games by a total of three points and when the two teams met again in the Colonial League semifinals, Lehighton picked up a 52-49 win.

Northwestern’s loss eliminated the Tigers from the league tournament and kept them from getting the top seed in the District 11 4A playoffs.

The semifinal game saw two of the better players in the Colonial League battling as they looked to carry their team to a win. The ebbs and flows of the game followed the success Northwestern Lehigh sophomore Natalie Conner and Lehighton senior Ryleigh Trotman.

Conner, who scored a game-high 27 points, had the hot hand to start the game and put up 13 first quarter points.

“I thought our girls gave everything they had,” said Northwestern coach Chris Deutsch. “We’re both very good teams and we knew it would be close again. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get that last shot to go or maybe things would have turned out better for us.”

The last shot that Deutsch mentioned was a final three-pointer put up by Conner that would have sent the game into overtime.

The ball came off the rim as the buzzer sounded and the Lehighton celebration kicked off.

Northwestern looked to pull off some heroics late in the game when Conner hit on a jumper from the foul line and big sister Mallory Conner got control of the ball off a turnover and turned it into a three-pointer to pull the Tigers within one at 50-49 with :17.9 left in regulation.

Ava Serfass hit two free throws for a three-point lead with :03 left, but Northwestern was able to get the ball quickly to Conner, who put up a potential game-tying three-pointer, but the shot missed its mark and started the celebration for the Indians.

Lehighton went on to defeat Notre Dame – Green Pond, the top seed in the tournament for the league championship and the top seed in districts.