ALLENTOWN, Pa.The Northwestern girls' basketball team wasn't even supposed to be playing on Sunday. But when the Tigers got that opportunity, they didn't waste it.

Saturday's loss to Freedom in its final pool play game seemed to end Northwestern's stay in the SportsFest "A-Town Throwdown" tournament at Cedar Beach Park. But since Fleetwood wasn't able to make the final day of the tournament after advancing from their pool, the Tigers reaped the benefits.The Tigers got the most out of their money with three more games on Sunday. After wins against Emmaus and Becahi early in the day, the Tigers saw their run come to a close to eventual-champion Parkland in the semifinals, 50-19."It was really nice of them to come back and beat Emmaus, and turn around and beat Becahi," said Tiger assistant coach Craig Mogel. "That was really huge for us. The girls are getting more confidence in themselves right now. They are learning to play together."During the regular season, head coach Chris Deutsch prides his Tigers on facing tough competition in their out of conference schedules. Northwestern saw plenty of solid competition throughout the SportsFest tournament with three games against Eastern Pennsylvania Conference (EPC) squads and two tough out of the area teams in Scranton Prep and Delaware Valley.So, while Northwestern was able to double its amount of games from last week's Stellar tournament, Mogel was pleased with the level of competition the Tigers were able to see, too."We play mostly [Class] AAAA schools in our non-league games during the season," Mogel said. "We think the harder teams we play in the summer, it's better for us. We don't want to play teams that we play normally. We want to play teams that beat us up a little bit."While the Tigers advanced to Sunday, another Times News area team missed out on that opportunity by one point.After opening the tournament with a tough 42-23 loss to Nazareth, the Lehighton girls responded with a three-point win over Penncrest on Saturday. A win against Dieruff a few hours later would have locked the Indians into Sunday's field of 16 teams in a single-elimination tournament.Instead, Lehighton's one-point loss at the buzzer against the Huskies left a sour taste in the mouths of the Indians."We wanted to play on Sunday, but we really kind of wanted to see where we were as a team," head coach Eric Gidney said. "It was nice to have close to a full roster. We were close to it, and then last night [Saturday against Dieruff] we didn't have one player. That could've been a difference for us."But it was nice to get a win at SportsFest. We did not get one last year."It may have been Lehighton's most lopsided defeat of the tournament, but Gidney thought it was good to experience the talent of Nazareth."A team like Nazareth obviously has a phenomenal résumé, so that was a good litmus test for us," Gidney said. "There was a point in the second half where I think we cut it to four. It was a seven-point game at halftime."The final score got a little bit out of hand, but I was really proud of how we battled. We were a little short-handed, and we've been a little short-handed most of the summer."Gidney, now in his third year at Lehighton, returns a roster that has both experience and youth. He's hoping his three-year plan comes to fruition, and it's the summer months that will begin that process."We are a mix of young and old," Gidney said. "We can start three or four sophomores at a time, and I'll usually start two seniors."Center Jenna Beck and point guard Allie Rossino are those two seniors. Sophomores Aubrey Blasiak and Skylynn Faust, as well as junior Jada Whiteman who is returning from a torn ACL, are the Indians' top-three returning scorers from a year ago. All had solid showings in the tournament.The Jim Thorpe girls collected a 43-42 win over Dunmore in pool play, but did not advance to Sunday. On the boys' side, both Northwestern and Lehighton went 1-2 in pool play to round out the TIMES NEWS area coverage teams.