The old saying claims that when Palmerton and Northern Lehigh meet, "you can throw the record books out."

The aged rivalry between the two programs dates back to almost a century ago and the matchup has made for some exciting contests.As the regular season draws to a close, both sides might actually be happy to do that with their record books. Palmerton has posted just two victories this year, while Northern Lehigh entered Tuesday's Colonial League contest with only six wins.Despite that, the desire, energy and motivation displayed on both sides was present, before some timely free-throw shooting down the stretch lifted the Bulldogs to a 48-43 victory."Certainly, we're happy with the win," Northern Lehigh head coach Jeff Miller said. "We gutted it out and it wasn't our best game. At times it wasn't pretty. But credit Palmerton for playing without their tallest player (Justin Hosier). We knew it didn't matter who was taking the court, that they were going to play hard."Out of the gates, the Bombers spurted out to a 6-2 edge, only to see the hosts respond with a 7-0 run. When Palmerton's Nate Dougherty's drive with six seconds left made it 9-8 Northern Lehigh, the fans could see it would be an entertaining game.In the second, both teams manufactured eight points, as the Bulldogs took a one-point lead into the locker room."I thought we played with a lot of intensity tonight," Palmerton mentor Ken Termini said. "For the most part, I thought we took pretty good shots, but we left too many points out there. We got to the rim, but we just didn't finish a high enough percentage of them."Northern Lehigh maintained its lead for the majority of the third frame, until the Bombers' Joey Suto drilled a trey with 2:09 remaining to tie the game at 24-all.Gio Colon's put-back gave the Bulldogs the lead back immediately, and after a Bomber miss, Preston Kemery came up huge with a follow-up, where he also drew a foul."I thought Preston Kemery did a great job for us tonight," Miller said. "He had a huge offensive rebound and put-back, foul, three-point play. I thought that was huge in momentum."A Dougherty triple opened the fourth to cut it to 30-29 Bulldogs, but the winners responded again with Brandon Hess hitting a shot in the lane, and Colon getting a layup.From that point on, it was a 'parade to the free throw line,' as the Bulldogs took up residence on the charity stripe on the next six possessions. A 9-for-12 showing allowed them to build a 43-31 lead, and the Blue Bombers went cold for that entire stretch, a five-minute period with no points."I thought it was one of our best defensive efforts of the season," Termini said. "Unfortunately, we weren't able to finish on the other side of the ball and it hurt us."In the final minute, Palmerton made it interesting, as Eric Baumgardt began a run with a three-point play. Dougherty followed with two free throws and a baseline drive, before Baumgardt drove across the lane for another two. That made it 46-40 with 16 ticks left, but Robert Schaeffer's fast-break layup sealed it.In the JV game, Northern Lehigh gained a 52-42 victory. The Bulldogs jumped out to an early 22-2 lead over the Blue Bombers.BIG NUMBERS ... Hess finished with 15 points, and Kemery followed with 11. Joe Egan's 10 and Colon's eight helped the cause. Palmerton's Dougherty tallied 15, Baumgardt added 11 and Suto chipped in nine.BY THE STATS ... For the game, Northern Lehigh held a 31-17 edge in rebounds, while Palmerton had only eight turnovers compared to the Bulldogs' 15. Northern Lehigh shot 14-of-33 from the floor (42 percent), while Palmerton was right behind at 17-of-42 (40 percent). The biggest number was the 'Dawgs 19-of-30 free-throw showing, compared to the Bombers' 6-of-10.PALMERTONYacone 3-0-0-6, Dougherty 5-3-6-15, Baumgardt 4-3-3-11, Suto 4-0-0-9, Yaindl 1-0-1-2, Silfies 0-0-0-0, King 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 17-6-10-43NORTHERN LEHIGHKemery 2-7-7-11, Egan 4-2-5-10, Seier 0-0-0-0, Seiler 1-0-0-2, Schaeffer 1-0-2-2, Schoff 0-0-0-0, Long 0-0-0-0, Hess 3-8-10-15, Colon 3-2-6-8. TOTALS: 14-19-30-48.Palmerton 8 8 10 17 - 43No. Lehigh 9 8 13 18 - 48Three pointers: Palmerton - Dougherty 2, Suto 1; Northern Lehigh - Hess 1.