Admittedly, Northwestern Lehigh has been able to ease into the Colonial League portion of its schedule.

With their first three games coming against teams with a combined record of 2-12, the Tigers haven’t really been tested in the early going.

It’s been a good way for a team with a number of young players on the roster to gain some experience and confidence, though, and that’s going to come into play as the season progresses and things get tougher.

On Thursday night, Northwestern hosted Southern Lehigh, and for the third time in their first four games, the Tigers passed the 50-point plateau to down the Spartans 57-30.

And for the fourth time in four games, it was sophomore Natalie Conner who led the team in scoring, as she netted 25 points.

Eliana Marques topped Southern Lehigh with 13 points, including three shots from beyond the arc. Her first three-pointer gave the Spartans what would be their only lead of the night when they took an early 3-2 lead.

From there, though, it was all Northwestern.

Five different players scored for the Tigers in the first quarter, as they opened up a 22-9 lead by the end of the period. In the second quarter, it looked like the visitors might be kept off of the scoreboard for the entire frame as their deficit grew to 23 points, before Lydia Bartlett picked up a pair of baskets in a 9-0 run for the Spartans that stretched into the third quarter.

Conner snapped the scoring skid when she hit a pair of shots from the foul line to put Northwestern up 34-18.

“I think we have a lot of unselfish players on this team, and we have been sharing the ball really well,” said coach Chris Deutsch. “It’s nice to have a team that knows to look at different options on the floor, and work to find who’s open.”

Turnovers were an issue for Southern Lehigh throughout, but especially in the third quarter as Northwestern was able to take advantage of the extra possessions and pushed its lead back to 22 points heading into the final quarter. Senior Hannah Gober led Northwestern, with seven of her 11 points coming in the third-quarter spurt.

“We have a lot of girls who are really good on this team, so I never feel like I have to be the one taking shots or have to carry this team,” said Conner. “I think we do a good job of spreading the ball around, and I have faith in all of my teammates because we have all worked so hard together.”

Much of the fourth quarter belonged to the Tigers, as they put up nine unanswered points, and opened up their largest lead of the game at 57-26 with 1:45 left in regulation.

Northwestern has found that they have an ability to hit three-pointers, and have connected on 32 shots from beyond the arc in its first five games this season. With four three-pointers, Conner now has 13 baskets from distance, while Emma Freeman upped her total to seven, adding one in the win.

“It’s important for us to be able to get points from anywhere on the court. We have some girls who are tough right around the basket, and others who shoot from outside, so that’s going to help us because teams might be able to stop us from scoring one way, but not the other ways,” said Conner.

Deutsch has been able to use the early games to get young players some experience on the court. With five freshmen players on the roster, the chance for them to get early playing time has been a big plus.

“It’s a big jump going from playing middle school to varsity, because they’re playing as eighth graders and playing against some younger players and now, they’re facing juniors and seniors on the court,” Deutsch said.

“We believe as a staff that they’re only going to get better as the season goes along. I don’t believe in the term ‘garbage time’ because they’re still getting out there and being evaluated and being put into different situations, and it’s important to just get those reps.”

You get the feeling that the Tigers are building something special. Both Deutsch and Conner talked about how close the players have become in the early part of the season, and how much fun the team is having playing together.

“I really like the cohesiveness that we have seen so far. They really get along, and they are really all pulling together,” said Deutsch. “We got down by 29 against ELCO (Eastern Lebanon County) ... and they responded and fought back to get it down to just three points, so I like the way our team fought together in a tough situation.”

A ROUGH OPPONENT … Northwestern will have a more challenging game to close out the week when it travels to Catasauqua to face the RoughRiders tonight. Catty is off to a 3-0 start, and has allowed an average of just 28 points per game.

SOUTHERN LEHIGH

Thomas 0-0-0-0, Druck 1-0-0-2, Bartlett 2-0-0-4, Martin 1-0-0-2, Williams 0-0-0-0, Marques 5-0-0-13, Adams 1-2-2-4, Smith 2-0-2-4, Fontanez 0-1-2-1, Brunner 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 12-3-6-30.

NORTHWESTERN

Bernhard 0-0-0-0, C. Gober 2-1-1-5, Freeman 2-0-0-5, Zentz 0-0-0-0, A. Snyder 0-0-0-0, H. Gober 3-4-6-11, N. Conner 8-5-7-25, M. Conner 1-0-0-2, Leh 1-1-2-3, Reinhart 2-1-1-6. TOTALS: 19-12-17-57.

Southern Lehigh 9 7 8 6 - 30

Northwestern 22 10 14 11 - 57

Three-pointers: Southern Lehigh - Marques 3; Northwestern N. Conner 4, Freeman 1, Gober 1, Reinhart 1.

Records: Southern Lehigh (1-4; 1-2); Northwestern (4-1; 3-0).