Palmerton head coach Rodney Strohl and Northern Lehigh head coach Tony Thomas have a lot in common this basketball season.

Neither team has a junior varsity squad, neither varsity squad has much depth and both teams lean on a couple of standouts when it comes to both offense and defense.The two teams met in a Colonial League matinee on Friday with the Lady Bombers hanging on for a 42-37 victory.It was the third of the season for Palmerton (3-10), with one of the other two also coming against Northern Lehigh (1-12)."(Jill) Olewine and (Kaitlin) Hoffman are two nice players," said Strohl afterwards. "You have to be ready to guard them. They make things happen. And the other girls around them do a nice job. Defensively and on the boards, they do a real good job."There were times we looked good going to the basket. And there are times when we just don't think correctly. But we play hard. We're learning what to do with the ball at the end of the game. We throw the ball too quickly. We don't decide to hang on to it at proper times. It's been a great learning experience those since only Linnaea (Leister) and Erika (Beers) have varsity experience."Hailey Muniz got the Bombers off a to a quick start with a three-pointer, but the Bulldogs were able to keep it close thanks to Hoffman's seven points as they trailed 10-9.In the second quarter, Leister caught fire a bit and scored six points, while Taylor Hirochek nailed a three-pointer to widen the Palmerton lead to 25-19 at intermission.With four minutes remaining in the third quarter, Northern Lehigh tied it up at 27-27, , but Palmerton closed out stanza on a 6-2 run thanks to six more by Leister and the Bulldogs never tied it or took the lead the rest of the way."We're young, we're working hard, we're doing what we need to do and I give them all the credit in the world," said Thomas. "It's not easy to get up when you're season is going the way it is going, but they still come every day, still work at practice and usually scrap."We have moments where we scrap and then we take too much time off. Sometimes we'll have three girls that will do there job and two girls might get a little tired or they're just not where they're supposed to be and it hurts us. We're just as all five need to click as a unit right now."Foul trouble early didn't help us because we're lacking a lot of depth is what it comes down to. Not having a JV team doesn't get those girls the playing time they need to realiztically handle situations. What we're trying to do night in and night out, is try to get better."ALMOST A MATCH ... When the Lady Bomber and Bulldogs met in the Lady Indians Holiday Tournament over the break in Lehighton, Palmerton pulled out a 42-38 win. The difference in this Friday's contest was five points.LATE RUN ... The Lady Bulldogs trailed by 11 late in the final quarter, but scored the final six points of the game to make it respectable.NO. LEHIGHK. Hoffman 8-5-9-21, Knerr 0-0-0-0, Kemery 2-0-0-4, D. Hoffman 1-0-2-2, Ziegler 1-0-2-2, Thomas 0-0-0-0, Olewine 3-2-3-8. TOTALS: 15-7-16-37.PALMERTONHirochek 2-0-0-5, Leister 7-0-0-14, Frantz 2-1-2-5, Wentz 2-0-0-4, Muniz 2-3-4-8, Beers 3-0-1-6, Goodhile 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 18-4-7-42.No. Lehigh 9 10 10 8 - 37Palmerton 10 15 8 9 - 42Three-pointers: NL - none; Palmerton - Hirochek 1, Muniz 1.