It was 2025 all over again in local boys’ basketball this week.
One night after Northampton repeated as Eastern Pennsylvania Conference champions, Northwestern Lehigh ran it back in the Colonial League, and for the Tigers, the title came against the same foe they beat last February.
But the Tigers’ 59-56 victory over Catasauqua Friday night at Freedom didn’t come nearly as easily as their 74-57 victory last Feb. 14.
A 34-18 halftime lead was cut to 52-51 on a Frankie Pujols 3-pointer with 1:54 left.
However, winning big games is in the DNA of Northwestern Lehigh athletes in recent years and just when the Tigers appeared to be caged, they pounced.
Brady Krimmel made a pair of free throws to get the lead back to 54-51, then made a steal and passed the ball to a streaking Cannon Fitch for a layup that made it a five-point game.
Again, Catty wouldn’t go away as Aalani Nix made the last of his 3-pointers to get Catty within two, and Krimmel made one of two at the line to make it 57-54.
But the Roughies’ Reece Lopez couldn’t convert on a potential game-tying 3-pointer, and Cannon Fitch made two foul shots with 19.4 seconds left to help put the game away.
Catty got one more basket on a Hamaad Jenkins rebound with 3.2 seconds left, but the Roughies never got a shot at a potential game-tying 3-pointer as Northwestern got to celebrate yet another championship in a golden era of athletics for the Tigers.
It was just the program’s third league title in boys basketball, with the first one coming in 2001.
“The second half was the game we expected,” said Northwestern Lehigh’s third-year coach Patrick Wanamaker, who also won a league championship as a player at Northern Lehigh. “I think in the first half, Catty missed some shots that they typically would make and that allowed our lead to inflate a little bit. Then in the second half, they pressured us and created a little more tempo, which is what we knew they were great at, and we expected it. There were a few moments of poor execution and poor decision-making, but down the stretch we made enough plays to win the game, and really, that’s all that matters.”
Mason Bollinger, who got a late start on his senior basketball season because he was a part of the Tigers’ third straight run to the state finals in football, led the team with 15 points and five assists. Brady Zimmerman and Krimmel each scored 11 points and Fitch had a season-high 19.
Malachi Coleman helped Northwestern control the boards with seven rebounds.
It was a typical team effort for the Tigers, who improved to 20-5, got Wanamaker his 60th win in just three seasons in charge, and secured the top seed in the upcoming District 11 4A tournament. Northwestern will get a first-round bye in the seven-team field and won’t be in action until Feb. 24.
They will take time to savor the league gold before thinking about the next goal on their list. Wanamaker was pleased that his team followed the game plan.
“The way we executed in the first half was our game plan,” he said. “We wanted to limit their possessions and also finish the possession when we got stops. They’re too good of a team to give them second-chance opportunities. They had a couple in the second half, and they got out in transition, and they’re really hard to match up with in transition. It comes down to possession basketball and I think we were able to have one or two more better possessions throughout the game than they did.”
Pujols, one of the area’s top scorers, was held to two points in the first half and finished with nine. Nix had just five points at halftime, but scored 12 in the fourth quarter and finished with 17. Jenkins was solid throughout in registering 15 points, but after fighting back from a big deficit, the Roughies just didn’t have enough left to get over the hump.
“It started out well for us; we were up 8-2, and just like that it turned, and we got outscored 32-10, and it was uphill from there,” Catty coach Eric Snyder said. “We shot so poorly in the first half, and they shot well. We didn’t rebound like we should, and they missed very few foul shots. We settled a lot for shots, and the frustration level set in. We were trying for 18-point plays. We had just one or two passes before shooting, or we had drives into nowhere. And they are very disciplined and run a good half-court offense. They played better than us in the first half. We fought back, but you use up so much energy when we have to come back like that, and we didn’t have enough left.”
Snyder regretted not pressing earlier.
“But hindsight is always 20-20,” he said. “We thought about it. We didn’t press against Notre Dame in the semifinals because we didn’t need to because they play fast like we do.”
Last year, after losing to Northwestern in the league final, Catty rebounded with four straight wins that included the District 11 3A title.
“I don’t want to dwell on last year because if you keep bringing it up, it falls on deaf ears,” Snyder said. “You try to use it as motivation, and we talked a lot about getting back to this game. You’ve have to stay in the here and now and not dwell on last year. This one was a lot closer than last year, and at least it was a game until the end. But we expended too much energy after getting so far down.”
Catty will be the No. 3 seed behind Schuylkill League champ Minersville and Notre Dame-Green Pond in the Class 3A district tournament and will play No. 6 Lehigh Valley Academy Charter in the quarterfinals on Feb. 21.
Locations and times will be released by District 11 on Sunday afternoon.
CATASAUQUA (56)
Pujols 4-9 0-2 9, Lopez 4-10 0-0 11, Jenkins 5-7 5-5 15, Lorah 0-2 0-0 0, Nix 5-11 4-6 17, Bolmer 1-3 0-0 2, Vaz 0-3 2-2 2. Totals 19-45 11-15 56.
NORTHWESTERN LEHIGH (59)
Bollinger 5-15 4-4 15, Zimmerman 4-12 2-2 11, Fitch 5-8 6-10 19, Krimmel 3-4 5-6 11, Coleman 1-6 0-0 3, Lagowy 0-0 0-0 0, Wertman 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-45 17-22 59.
Catasauqua 10 – 8 – 18 – 20 — 56
Northwestern Lehigh 16 – 18 – 14 – 11 –59
Officials: John Hymans, Andy Donatelli, Kyle Hutnik
3-pointers: Catasauqua 7 (Nix 3, Lopez 3, Pujols), Northwestern Lehigh 6 (Fitch 3, Bollinger, Coleman, Zimmerman).
Rebounds: Catasauqua 21 (Nix 8). Northwestern 30 (Coleman 7).
Assists: Catasauqua 7 (Pujols 4). Northwestern 10 (Bollinger 5).
Turnovers: Catasauqua 8, Northwestern 8.
Fouls: Catsauqua 19, Northwestern 14.
