Lehighton girls top Tamaqua

Establishing a run in the game of basketball is difficult, but thwarting the oppositions run can be even tougher.

On Tuesday night, Lehighton was able to achieve both against Schuylkill League Division 1 rival Tamaqua.

The Tribe kept the Raiders at arms length throughout the game, answering the call every time Tamaqua would gain momentum. The result was an important 52-46 league victory for the Indians.

Tamaqua (7-4) has struggled of late, losing its last three, and a big reason for that has been sluggish starts. That trend continued as the Tribe (9-2) shot out to a 11-4 lead in the first quarter. Skylynn Faust started out hot for the Indians, scoring their first nine points, which helped Lehighton take a nine-point lead into the second quarter.

“In the past few games, we haven’t played well early on, and then you put yourself in a position where you’re having to play from behind and that’s tough to do against good basketball teams,” said Tamaqua head coach Erika Davis. “Every time we seemed to get a little momentum in our favor they answered, and we talked about that after the game. We have to be able to get stops and capitalize on a run, and we just weren’t able to do that tonight.”

Lehighton extended its lead to 10 halfway through the second quarter. A mini run in the last minute brought the Raiders within five, but a last-second bucket by Faust stole Tamaqua’s momentum once again going into the half.

Simply put, Faust was the Raider-killer on the night. She led all scorers with 30 points.

“Skylynn (Faust) is just getting better every game, she’s the real deal,” said Indians head coach Joe Berezwick. “If you just look at her stat line tonight, you could see all the things she does well. She rebounds great, she’s shooting the ball well, and she loves to distribute the ball too.”

After Lehighton led by 10 after three, Tamaqua would make one final run at the Indians. The Raiders fought all the way back to close within two with five minutes remaining, but a Faust bucket plus the harm at the 4:40 mark extended the Lehighton lead to five.

That score seemed to just take the life out of the Raiders, and the Tribe would go up by as much as 11 after that moment. Two late Emma Kuczynski triples when the game was already in hand closed Tamaqua within six, which is how the game ended.

“This a good win. Credit to Tamaqua, because they kept coming, but getting off to the good start and some big answers on the offensive end helped us get the W,” said Berezwick. “We’re just chipping away one game at a time and we’re playing some pretty solid basketball.”

ROUGH ROAD ... The Raiders have lost three in a row — all on the road, which can be attributed to the slow starts. Early turnovers didn’t help as Tamaqua committed 11 times in the first half.

CHIPPING IN ... Faust’s scoring partner on the season, Aubrey Blasiak, scored 12 points for the Indians, while Emily Miller hit some big shots and finished with eight. Kuczynski led the Raiders with 18.

TAMAQUA

Zuber 1-2-2-5, Hromyak 1-0-0-3, Jones 4-1-4-9, Boyle 1-0-0-3, Titus 4-0-0-8, Frederickson 0-0-0-0, Kuczynski, 7-1-8-18. TOTALS: 18-4-14-46.

LEHIGHTON

Brown 0-0-4-0, Frey 0-2-7-2, Long 0-0-0-0, Hibbler 0-0-0-0, Blasiak 4-3-4-12, Miller 2-4-4-8, Faust 9-10-13-30, Buchinsky 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 15-19-32-52.

Tamaqua 6 12 7 21 - 46

Lehighton 15 10 10 17 - 52

Three-pointers: Tamaqua - Kuczynski 3, Zuber 1, Hromyak 1, Boyle 1; Leh - Faust 2, Blasiak 1.