Northwestern Lehigh mentor Chris Deutsch has a favorite basketball quote from Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown, and it is simple: “Play the right way.”

On Wednesday night, the Tigers were able to do just that, putting together a dominant effort on both sides of the floor to help them defeat Northern Lehigh 61-11 in Colonial League action.

Northwestern’s fast-paced play caused a number of issues early in the first quarter for the Bulldogs, who came into the game without their starting point guard Cadence Whalen. The Tigers full-court pressure forced 13 first quarter turnovers, which helped them get out to a 26-4 advantage after the opening frame.

Northwestern was not only efficient in converting buckets off Northern Lehigh’s turnovers during the surge, but it also consistently executed in the half court, moving the ball well and finding open players in high-quality shooting areas.

Maci Fisher (seven), Paige Sevrain (six) and Cara Thomas (six) combined for 19 points in first quarter for the Tigers.

“With them not having their point guard, that definitely hurt them, and it made a difference, but up to this point in the season, tonight was our best performance and our best game. We got off to a really good start tonight,” said Deutsch. “What I was so happy with was how well we shared the ball. All year long, our defense has been pretty good and our defense was certainly impactful tonight, but our execution in our half court offensive sets was very impressive tonight.”

The Tigers (5-1) efficiency on the offensive end got them out to a 10-2 lead, and it carried over to the stat sheet, as they shot 10-for-17 from the field in the first quarter.

“We wanted to make this an up-and-down game and a fast-paced game,” said Deutsch. “We wanted to come out and be aggressive on defense, and then attack the rim on offense and we were able to do that.”

Four points from freshman Hannah Gober to start the second quarter helped trigger an 8-0 Northwestern run to extend its lead to 34-4.

The Bulldogs leading scorer on the season, Aubrey Pollard – who was averaging 18.5 points per game coming into the game – saw her best success on the night as she was able to score back-to-back buckets to make it 34-8, but the Tigers would then finish the second on a 7-0 run to lead by 33 at the half.

“We know when we see them again at the end of the year, this will be a much closer game. We jumped them right from the start tonight, and of course with Whalen in there, I’m sure they take better care of the ball, but it was just a great effort from our girls tonight,” said Deutsch. “We played the game the right way. We shared the ball, played unselfish and played good defense.”

LEADING SCORERS

… Fisher and Thomas led the way with 13 points apiece for the Tigers. Hannah Gober added 12 points, while Sevrain came through with 10.

DOMINANT DEFENSE…

Northwestern forced 24 miscues by the Bulldogs in the game, and held Pollard – one of the leading scorers in the Times News area – to just five points.

NORTHERN LEHIGH

Moffitt 0-0-0-0, Williams 0-0-0-0, K. Barthold 2-0-0-4, Pollard 2-1-2-5, Bondle 0-0-0-0, Bosch 0-0-0-0, D. Barthold 1-0-0-2, Peters 0-0-0-0, Richards 0-0-0-0, Snyder 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 5-1-2-11.

NORTHWESTERN

H. Gober 5-2-2-12, Balliet 1-3-4-5, Miller 0-0-0-0, Bissell 1-0-0-2, Freeman 2-0-0-5, Thomas 5-3-4-13, Fisher 6-1-1-13, G. Gober 0-1-2-1, Conner 0-1-2-1, Sevrain 5-0-0-10, Reinhart 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 25-10-13-61.

Northern Lehigh 4 4 3 0 - 11

Northwestern 26 15 12 8 - 61

Three-pointers: Northern Lehigh - None. Northwestern - Freeman 1.