Northwestern entered its Colonial League battle with Wilson needing to win four of its last five games in order to qualify for the District 11 playoffs.

Through three-and-a-half quarters, the Tigers seemed to be well on their way to the first of those victories. However, Wilson and its senior scoring threat Jeff Cooper had other plans as the Warriors mounted the comeback and eventually pulled out a 71-70 come-from-behind victory.Trailing by a point with 10 seconds left in the game, Cooper took a pass, drove the lane and converted on a three-point play to put his team up 71-69.Following a timeout, the Tigers set up a play for Parker Jones, who drew a foul and went to the line with :02 left for two charity tosses. After converting on the first, the second spun out and the rebound went to Cooper, who heaved it high as time ran out."We've lost a lot of tough games this year," Wilson coach Bob Frankenfield said. "I feel for Northwestern because we know what it's like. But naturally, it feels good to be on the winning end of one of these games, as well."To the kids' credit, they came out in the second half and played some good hard defense and squeaked out a win."After trailing 40-32 at the intermission and 55-47 at the end of the third, the Warriors' effort increased, as they chased down loose balls, beat out defenders for offensive rebounds and maintained the momentum enough for their third win of their season."It's great for me and my teammates to get the win," Cooper said afterward. "In the second half, coach really stressed to us to get back on defense because we weren't in the first. But down the stretch, we all really picked it up and through hard work we were able to get the win."To start that fourth quarter, the Tigers swelled their lead to 62-47 with just under six minutes to play as a Jones triple and layups from Dustin Snyder and Rob Seyfried completed a 7-0 run. But that was when the Warriors began their comeback.Michael Whildin converted two layups to start the rally and Cooper drove for two to finish an 11-0 spurt that made it 62-58 with 3:24 left."It just seemed like we couldn't get a stop in that fourth," Northwestern coach Billy Hallman said. "Then, when we could, we couldn't get a rebound."Jones stopped the bleeding for the Tigers, as his full-court drive resulted in a three-point play, but Cooper scored on consecutive drives to cut it to 65-62 with 2:32 remaining.Robert Smeltz's drive eventaully tied the game for the first time since the first period. With :41 left, Jones hit a free throw to give his team its last lead at 69-68.DO OR DIE ... With the loss, Northwestern now faces a must-win situation as they need to win their remaining four games in order to make the cut for districts. That quest begins tonight when it plays host to Northern Lehigh.GLASS CLEANER .... The Warriors held a 42-37 edge in rebounds for the game. Out of those 42 rebounds, Wilson had 19 offensive boards, including six in the final session. The most important one set up Cooper's winning shot in the final seconds.PRE-GAME ... In the preliminary contest, Wilson defeated the junior Tigers 61-46 in the JV contest for the sweep on the evening.WILSONAlexander 3-2-4-8, Cooper 11-3-6-27, Glovas 1-0-0-3, Smeltz 4-1-3-10, Gibson 0-0-0-0, Raso 5-3-4-14, M. Smith 0-0-0-0, Whildin 3-2-4-8, Jefferson 0-1-2-1, E. Smith 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 27-12-23-71.NORTHWESTERNMengel 4-2-4-12, Jones 5-8-11-22, Snyder 2-2-4-6, Seyfried 8-8-11-24, Hess 3-0-0-6, Yadush 0-0-0-0, McCann 0-0-0-0, Fatzinger 0-0-0-0, Fager 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 22-20-30-70.Wilson 14 18 15 24 - 71Northwestern 24 16 15 15 - 70Three pointers: W - Cooper 2, Smeltz 1, Raso 1, Glovas 1; NW - Jones 4, Mengel 2.