The first two meetings between Northwestern and Salisbury were tight contests that weren't decided until the final minute.

But Saturday night when the teams met in the quarterfinal round of the Colonial League playoffs, a different script played out.This time, the Tigers built a big halftime lead and cruised to a 51-38 victory."The last two games we were kind of sluggish coming into them," Northwestern's Erika Thomas said of the previous meetings. "Tonight we were full of energy. I could tell that we had a couple of good practices leading up to this."The first matchup between the two squads saw Salisbury escape with a two-point win on Jan. 2. Last week, Northwestern avenged that loss with an overtime victory over the Falcons.This time, after Salisbury jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead, Northwestern was in control the rest of the way.The Tigers scored 11 of the final 13 points in the opening quarter to take an 11-7 advantage. That lead ballooned to 28-12 at halftime between a combined 18 points from Erika Thomas (11) and Leighanna Lister (7)."Once we got the lead, we forced them to play some different defenses that they don't typically play," Northwestern coach Chris Deutsch said. "I thought we got off to a really good start. I thought defensively we were really good."Salisbury committed 12 turnovers in the first half that allowed Northwestern to take charge of the game."We had 20 turnovers again," Salisbury head coach Joe Mladosich said. "That's all we practiced, limiting turnovers. Everything we worked on we didn't do as a team today at all."They did all of the fundamental things right. They rebounded the ball. They got second, third and fourth shots. It's simple basic things that we need to do better. That's on me because we're not doing them any better."After that first quarter rally for Northwestern, the snowball continued to grow larger and larger. After doubling-up Salisbury on a Thomas three-pointer with 3:09 to play in the second quarter, the Lady Tigers' lead grew to 36-18 early in the second half.Salisbury trailed by at least 12 points for the entire second half."The atmosphere was amazing here tonight," Thomas said. "I really think that helped us. We had a great crowd come out. We were really clicking tonight. We got out to an early lead and we were able to keep it, which is good for us."With the win, Northwestern advances to play top-seeded Southern Lehigh on Tuesday night in the Colonial League semifinals."I know everybody is going to consider us a big underdog to win that game - that's fine," Deutsch said. "But the longer we stay in the game, more pressure goes on the team that's favored to win."DÉJÀ VU ALL OVER AGAIN: Northwestern found itself in a similar situation last season when it faced Southern Lehigh in the conference semifinals. They'll look to have a repeat performance and upset the Spartans once again after coming away with a 44-40 victory in 2015.ON FIRE: Thomas hit three three-pointers against Salisbury, all of which came in the first half. She finished with a game-high 20 points.WELL-ROUNDED BUNCH: While Northwestern got key contributions from his two leading scorers in Thomas (20) and Lister (13), the play of the reserves was equally impressive. "I thought the girls coming off the bench did a nice job," Deutsch said.SALISBURYH. Bruns 0-0-0-0, Donaldson 1-0-2-3, Burkhardt 0-0-0-0, Meikrantz 3-1-2-11, Bauer 5-0-2-11, Bucchin 1-1-2-3, Nicholas 3-0-0-6, K. Bruns 0-0-0-0, Utesch 2-0-0-4. TOTALS: 15-2-8-38NORTHWESTERNLister 5-3-4-13, Chisdak 1-2-2-4, Sevrain 2-3-4-7, Pasquale 1-0-0-3, Koenig 2-0-0-4, Williamson 0-0-0-0, Deitrich 0-0-0-0, Thomas 5-7-10-20. TOTALS: 16-15-20-51.Salisbury 7 5 11 15 - 38Northwestern 11 17 12 11 - 51Three-pointers: Salisbury - Meikrantz 2, Bauer 1, Donaldson 1; Northwestern - Thomas 3, Pasquale 1.