The first time Palmerton and Northern Lehigh met this season, the Bulldogs suffered a slow start and had to battle back to grab a win over the Blue Bombers. On Friday night, though, it was Palmerton that had the dismal start, scoring only two points in the first quarter.

The 'Dawgs pounced on their opponent and jumped out to an early advantage that proved to be too large to overcome Nolehi pulled out away for a 49-36 Colonial League win.The Bombers managed to get Northern Lehigh big man Josh Landsberger in early foul trouble and sent him to the bench for a majority of the second frame, where they cut the lead to 23-15 at the intermission.But it was the role-play of the remainder of the Northern Lehigh roster that proved to maintain the lead."I think Matt Egan was one hundred percent the difference in this game," said Palmerton head coach Leigh Keenan. "I give a lot of credit to him because he runs the show for them, and he never gets rattled. He's a very poised player and he makes them go."The senior poured in a game-high 16 points, dished out five assists and collected seven rebounds to help his team snare the win."It was my 'Senior Night,' so I wanted to come out with as much fire as I could," Egan said. "I tried to stay calm under their pressure and not lose composure. It feels awesome."Egan started hot with seven points in the first eight minutes to pull his team ahead 11-2.In the second, five different Northern Lehigh players scored to maintain the advantage at 23-15 at the break.Meanwhile, Mark Quinn erupted for seven points to get the Blue Bombers out of their funk."We knew what happened the first time we played them," said Northern Lehigh head coach Jeff Miller. "Tonight, I think we came out with a little more energy than we have been and that was huge. We might not have been too fluid offensively early on, but to only give up two points in the first shows that we were big defensively."After sitting for a majority of the second, Landsberger's presence was immediately felt, as he started the third with a strong drive down the right side of the lane, and fed Tyler Dibilio for a trey to make their lead 28-15.Logan Lesher and Nick Frey sandwiched triples around an Egan drive, before John Taylor nailed a trey of his own. Quinn and Spencer Hay put in lay-ups around two points apiece from Dibilio and Egan, and at the end of the third, Nolehi led 37-25.Mike Stasko put back a miss to start the fourth, but that was as close as the Bombers would get the remainder of the way, as Dibilio put in six in the final session."It's always nice to get a win and especially against Palmerton coming in here," Dibilio said. "It was a much more physical type of game against them then in previous years."In the game, Egan's 16 and Dibilio's 15 were tops for the winners, while Landsberger snared seven boards.For Palmerton (2-18; 0-15), Mark Quinn finished with 11 points and nine boards, while Logan Lesher added eight points, three steals and seven boards. Spencer Hay finished with six points, five rebounds, and three blocks.PALMERTONHay 3-0-0-6, Achtermann 0-2-2-2, Svetik 0-0-0-0, Lesher 2-2-3-8, Weber 0-0-0-0, Frey 1-0-0-3, Suto 0-0-0-0, Quinn 4-3-3-11, Buck 0-0-0-0, Stasko 2-0-0-4, Burger 1-0-0-2. TOTALS: 13-7-8-36.NORTHERN LEHIGHTraca 1-2-4-4, Egan 7-1-1-16, Dibilio 4-6-6-15, Taylor 3-0-0-7, Shupp 0-0-0-0, Smith 0-0-0-0, Hofmann 1-1-4-3, Landsberger 2-0-0-4, Novitsky 0-0-0-0, Hamm 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 18-10-15-49.Palmerton 2 13 10 11 - 36No. Lehigh 11 12 14 12 - 49Three pointers: P - Lesher 2, Frey 1; NL - Taylor 1, Dibilio 1, Egan 1.