Tamaqua pulls away from JT

In most sports, defense wins championships.

Tamaqua took a step toward the District 11 4A championship with a shut down third quarter defense that changed the dynamic of the game in last night’s 57-40 win over Jim Thorpe.

“We didn’t play as well as we could in the first half,” said Raider coach Jim Barron. “But we were still happy to be up by four points.”

In the third quarter, after Jim Thorpe’s Chris Valdez’s driving layup cut the Raider lead to 31-25, the Olympians would not score from the floor again for the next six minutes and 40 seconds. During that span, the Raiders spread the ball around as five different players contributed to a 12-0 run.

“We were able to stop their guards from penetrating and dishing the ball out to (Justin) Marykwas, who’s their best shooter,” said Barron.

Marykwas, who led Thorpe on the night with 14 points, was held to no points on three shots in the pivotal third quarter.

“They got us out of our offensive rhythm in the second half,” said Jim Thorpe coach, Jason McElmoyle. “They’re a 17-game winner so we knew coming in we’d have to play our best to keep it close.”

And keep it close is exactly what the Olympians did in the first half as Marykwas hit on his first two three point shots. On defense, Nick Rosahac blocked several shots and held Tamaqua’s low-post threat, Luke Gregiore, to a single basket in the first eight minutes.

A three-pointer by Tyler Burak gave the Olympians an 8-4 edge at the 4:55 mark. A half minute later, Nate Rosahac’s free throw put the Olympians up 10-7.

The Raiders would score the game’s next seven points to go up by four when Mitchell Kurek scored on a driving layup off of a turnover.

After Tamaqua’s Brayden Knoblauch nailed two treys within a 28-second span to open the second quarter, the Olympians came roaring back when Nick Rosahac’s layup completed a 7-0 run.

“Our game plan worked really well in the first half,” said McElmoyle.

The third quarter belonged to the Raiders as they pushed the ball up the court and went on the 12-0 run.

“We were catching and holding too much in the first half,” said Barron. “I told them we need to and catch and pass and move the ball quickly to find the open man.”

After getting to the charity stripe only three times in the entire first half, the Raiders pounded the ball inside in the third and fourth quarters and made 17 free throws out of 22 attempts in the final 16 minutes. Lucas Gregoire led the march to the line and sank eight of his nine foul shots.

“Their guards are really quick, but we forced them to back off penetrating the paint and they hardly took any shots in the game,” said Barron.

As the game began to slip away from the Olympians, McElmoyle changed his defensive schemes from a triangle-and-two, to a two-three zone, and to man-to-man, but nothing stopped the Raiders.

“We got caught too many times when they attacked our rotations,” said McElmoyle. “We were happy where we were at the end of the first half, but we fell too far back in the third and then we had to press in the final quarter. When you do that you can give up easy baskets up the floor and that’s just what happened.”

SCORING ... Lucas Gregiore led all Tamaqua scorers with 18 points and Thad Zuber added 16. Nate Rosahac scored 10 points behind Marykwas’ 14 for Jim Thorpe.

RECORDS ... Tamaqua improves to 17-6. Jim Thorpe ended its season at 12-11.

UP NEXT ... The Raiders advance to the D11/1 subregional semifinals against Lower Moreland on Tuesday at Lower Moreland.

JIM THORPE

Searfoss 0-0-0-0, Burak 1-0-0-3, L. Valdez 0-0-0-0, Cannariato 0-0-0-0, Garman 0-0-2-0, C. Valdez 2-0-0-4, Scott 0-0-0-0, Foreman 0-0-0-0, Marykwas 5-0-0-14, Na. Roshac 2-6-11-10, Ni. Roshac 2-3-4-7, Boyle 1-0-0-2. TOTALS: 13-9-17-40.

TAMAQUA

Bonetsky 2-0-2-4, Stianche 1-1-2-3, Griffin 0-0-0-0, Kurek 1-0-0-2, Zuber 4-6-9-16, Mateyak 0-0-0-0, Knoblacuh 3-2-2-10, Rother 1-2-2-4, Zehner 0-0-0-0, Agosti 0-0-0-0, G. Gregoire 0-0-0-0, L. Gregoire 5-8-9-18, Stauffenberg 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 17-19-25-57

Jim Thorpe 10 12 7 11 - 40

Tamaqua 14 12 21 10 - 57

Three-pointers: JT - Marykwas 4, Burak 1; Tamaqua - Zuber 2, Knoblauch 2.