Northern Lehigh boys basketball coach Jeff Miller has watched his team come up with a couple of close wins after opening the season with a big loss to Bangor.

Add another one of those close wins to the Bulldogs ledger after they came from behind and held off arch rival Palmerton for a 54-50 Colonial League win on Saturday afternoon."First, we had to get back into the game because we came out kind ofsluggish," said Miller."That's a credit to Palmerton. They came out and were running on allcylinders, hit some shots and we got down early."We didn't panic thanks to our senior leadership, stayed the course, got back into the game and had that little run that gave us the lead."The Bombers (0-6, 0-5) showed some intensity in the first quarter that they didn't show in their five previous starts and it paid off giving them a 16-6 lead. Only a last second bucket by Joe Egan kept the Bombers from holding a double-digit advantage entering the second quarter.Spencer Hay, having his best game thus far, scored six of his team-high 16 points in the first period and was a force on the boards with 15 rebounds. Nick Frey had eight thanks to a pair of three-pointers.The second quarter was a completely different story and turned out to be what kept the Bombers from having a shot at their first win of the season.Northern Lehigh (4-1, 4-1) continued its run that started on Joe Egan's bucket and carried it through most of the second quarter on what would be a 21-0 run. When the dust cleared, the Bulldogs had a 27-16 lead and carried it to 30-20 at intermission."We need to play all four quarters and I think we played three very well," said Palmerton head coach Leigh Keenan."The second one really hurt us."The Bombers outscored the Bulldogs 15-7 in the third quarter as Hay and Mark Quinn had six apiece to pull within 37-35 entering the final eight minutes. The closest the Bombers would come was within one at 41-40 as the Bulldogs made 11-of-16 free throws down the stretch to keep it from getting away."We fortunately hit some big free throws, but itcould have been a little easier by making all of them," Miller added."But we were gritty and we knew coming in here it was going to be a tough game, it's a rivalry game and Palmerton is a goodball club despite their record."This is four in a row now and hopefully our kids feel good about it going into the break and get ready for the Rotary Tournament."Matt Egan, who had six in the final quarter, led the Bulldogs with 17 points. Josh Landsberger also added six down the stretch and backed him up with 12.Hay wasbacked up by Quinn, who had 14."We bounced back after a tough loss to Pen Argyl, had a good practice and it carried over into a good performance today, said Keenan."It was just a tough one."It's tough to change bad habits, but they're really trying. What they're doing iscoming together as ateam. So the credit is all on them."The Bombers did salvage a 54-52 win in the JV game as Mike Stasko had a game-high 25 points thanks to 9-of-10 from the free throw line. David Shupp had 14 and Jarryd Traca added 11 for the Bulldogs.NO. LEHIGHM. Egan 6-5-8-17, Dibilio 2-4-8-8, Shupp 2-0-0-4, J. Egan 3-1-2-9, Hofmann 2-0-1-4, Landsberger 3-6-8-12. TOTALS: 18-16-27-54.PALMERTONHay 8-0-2-16, Achtermann 0-0-0-0, Svetik 0-0-0-0, Lesher 2-0-0-5, Weber 0-0-0-0, Frey 3-1-2-9, Quinn 4-6-7-14, Shivone 0-0-0-0, Stasko 2-2-2-6, Burger 0-0-0-0. TOTALS:19-9-13-50.No. Lehigh 8 22 7 17 - 54Palmerton 16 4 15 15 - 50Three-pointers: NL - J. Egan 2; P - Frey 2, Lesher 1.