The Northwestern girls’ basketball team picked the wrong night for its hot shooting to go cold.

With the four-time defending league champion Southern Lehigh in town Friday night, the Tigers didn’t have a lot of good looks thanks to a tough Spartans’ defense, and when they did get good looks, they couldn’t knock down the shots.

The result was a 45-30 loss for Northwestern, its first of the season.

Both defenses ruled the game in the early going by forcing turnovers, and even though the Spartans used early foul shooting to take an early 5-0 lead, it was Southern Lehigh (2-1, 2-0) who was in foul trouble with Jeanne Rautureau picking up three fouls in the game’s first three minutes. Just as Emily Sekerak got Northwestern (3-1, 1-1) going with a couple of baskets, Olivia Snyder came right back with two of her own for the Spartans to give Southern Lehigh a 10-6 advantage after the first quarter.

“We had trouble hitting shots right from the start,” said Tigers’ coach Chris Deutsch. “And you have to hand it to them, too, because they’re a really good team and they made it tough on us to get any good looks at the basket.”

Neither team could get a strong run going in the second quarter, and half-way through the game, Southern Lehigh held a 22-15 advantage. Elizabeth Cassel put Southern Lehigh up 24-15 early in the third quarter, but Sydney Sevrain, who struggled in the first half, going just 2-for-8 from the floor, hit a three-pointer that seemed to jump start the Tigers. Once again, the Spartans put down the uprising. Northwestern was down by nine as time ran down in the third quarter, and Sevrain again looked to spark a Tigers run when she drained a long three-pointer at the buzzer to cut the lead to 31-25.

“I thought when Sydney hit that three, that we were down six and there was still a full quarter to go and we were in good shape,” commented Deutsch. “I really thought that shot was going to be the turning point for us that we would start to get some shots to fall and make this a game.”

The only problem was that the Spartans went on a 6-0 run through the first half of the final eight minutes, and Northwestern never did get its shots to fall. The Tigers outside shots were off the mark, and when they tried to get inside, Cassel and Alyssa Rice were swatting shots away. Snyder scored eight of her game-high 23 points in the fourth quarter to put the game out of reach.

Sevrain led all Northwestern scorers with 13 points.

BUILDING A RIVALRY ... The two teams are perennially among the tougher programs in the Colonial League, but Southern Lehigh continues to rack up wins against league opponents. The win over the Tigers gives them 69 straight regular season wins in league games. Of those wins, only seven have been by less than 10 points, including a three-point win at Northwestern last season. The two teams meet again at Southern Lehigh on Jan. 22.

DOWN-LOW DUO ... Sekerak and Christopher have been a tough tandem to deal with for opponents. Both girls came into the game averaging right around 12 points per game. The Spartans held each of them to just six points, and Sekerak fouled out with 3:27 left in the game.

SOUTHERN LEHIGH

Walter 0-0-0-0, Wilkins 0-0-0-0, Moncman 2-0-0-5, Snyder 9-5-7-23, Bennett 0-0-0-0, Rautureau 0-2-2-2, Schmitt 0-0-0-0, Rice 1-1-2-3, Cassel 4-2-6-10, Mobley 0-2-2-2. TOTALS 16-12-19-45

NORTHWESTERN

Betz 0-0-0-0, Mack 0-0-0-0, Lister 0-3-4-3, Jones 0-0-0-0, Ledeboer 0-0-0-0, Sevrain 5-1-2-13, Hess 0-0-0-0, Sekerak 3-0-0-6, Christopher 1-4-6-6, Dorney 0-2-2-2. TOTALS 9-10-14-30

So. Lehigh 10 12 10 14 - 45

Northwestern 6 9 9 5 - 30

Three-pointers: SL – Moncman 1. NW – Sevrain 2.