NORTHAMPTON Sabrina Mertz and Sarah Segan played vital roles in helping Northwestern win last year's Colonial League championship.

In this their final season on the court, the two wanted to end their league slate with another league title.The Tigers took another step closer toward achieving that goal on Tuesday night.Following Northwestern's biggest lead of the game at 29-17 at halftime of their Colonial League semifinals matchup against Southern Lehigh, the Spartans retook the lead in third quarter. But Northwestern's defense and a few crucial free throws down the stretch helped the No. 5 seeded Tigers upset the top-seeded Spartans, 44-40, at Catasauqua High School.A year after downing Southern Lehigh in the championship game, the Tigers once again topped those Spartans in postseason play."I wanted nothing more for my senior year," Mertz said. "This was our goal right away. When we started off the season, it was to make league playoffs. We got lucky this year that there were six teams, and that we were able to come in as the fifth seed."The Tigers face No. 2 seed Notre Dame-Green Pond in the championship on Friday at Freedom High School at 6 p.m.After a 0-4 start in the league play, having some doubt about returning to the championship game, and league playoffs for that matter, would have been normal.But the newly formatted six-team tournament gave the Tigers a chance as one of the final two seeds in. They have taken that opportunity and ran with it."At the beginning of the year, I didn't think that we could get to this spot," Segan said. "We were not playing very good basketball. We came such a long way, and that's what makes the team great."It was a little bit of doubt. The beginning was hard, but then we slowly started making our way up. That's when we knew we had the heart and knew we could do it."Southern Lehigh's Madison Campbell recorded a steal and layup in transition just 40 seconds into the second half that started the Spartans' comeback. The Spartans' 13-0 run to begin the third period, capped by a rebound and putback from Tyler Saraceno, gave Southern Lehigh a 30-29 advantage.But with their playoff lives at risk, the Tigers turned up the defense over the final eight minutes. The Spartans, who shot just 1-of-10 in the fourth, got their final field goal with a little less than six minutes remaining on the clock.The Tigers' free throw shooting wasn't the best down the stretch (7-of-17 in the fourth), but Mertz hit three of four in the final 51 seconds to secure the win."Only keeping them to five points, that is something that you want from a team," Segan said. "Especially when it's getting close, you don't want them to score."Mertz and Segan, who each scored a team-high 15 points, both had their shining moments when the Tigers needed it most."My team kept setting great screens, and I was able to come off of them and hit some shots," Mertz said. "In the second half when I wasn't feeling it as much and they were face-guarding me more, we had so many people step up. That's why we were able to win tonight because we had so many girls contribute."NORTHWESTERNMertz 4-4-6-15, Landrigan 1-0-0-2, Divers 0-0-0-0, Segan 6-3-9-15, Koenig 1-4-6-6, Williamson 0-0-0-0, Thomas 1-3-6-6, Anderson 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 13-14-27-44.SOUTHERN LEHIGHCerciello 1-0-0-2, A. Mobley 4-2-2-12, J. Cyr 1-0-0-3, Koziel 0-0-0-0, Saraceno 2-1-4-5, S. Cyr 1-4-4-6, Campbell 5-0-2-12, B. Mobley 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 14-7-12-40.Northwestern 13 16 5 10 - 44Southern Lehigh 9 8 18 5 - 40Threes: NW - Mertz 3, Thomas 1; SL - A. Mobley 2, Campbell 2, J. Cyr 1.