Tribe routs NL to stay perfect

The recent subzero temperatures have forced people indoors as wind chill warnings have gone into effect.

The recent cold snap hasn’t affected the Lehighton girls basketball team, however, as the undefeated Indians have stayed on fire.

Thursday night in the Lehighton gymnasium, the Indians utilized a red hot start to melt Northern Lehigh’s hopes of pulling off the upset in the first round of the Lehighton Indians Holiday Classic.

Behind Skylynn Faust and Aubrey Blasiak, the Tribe moved on to the championship with a 65-30 victory over the Bulldogs, and will face Pleasant Valley in the final.

Joe Berezwick’s squad jumped out to a 20-5 first period lead. Midway through the second quarter, the advantage had grown to 34-8.

“Against Northern Lehigh, with players like (Jada) Saeger and (Jill) Olewine, we knew it would be important to get that big start,” Berezwick said. “We thought if we did that, we could keep them away from their game plan. We shot well to start and got separation early.”

Faust and Blasiak actually accounted for all of the Tribe’s first 28 points of the game, as they alternated dropping buckets. When Julia Frey made an interior jumper with just over five minutes remaining in the first half, Faust had already poured in 15 points, while Blasiak had drilled three treys and added 13.

“Since we won last year, we came out tonight hoping to defend and in order to do that, we had to get that big start,” Faust said. “I thought I would be able to get most of my points driving to the basket and cleaning up underneath, and it worked out for us.”

In fact, outside of a triple and a few foul shots, Faust proved to be an interior threat, collecting scores underneath throughout the contest.

The Indians (7-0) also focused on their defensive attack in the first round win as they forced 10 first half turnovers, which translated into some easy points on the other end.

“This was the first game of the season where we got blown out, and I thought we didn’t do a particularly good job defensively,” Northern Lehigh head coach Ken Shankweiler said. “That’s not to take anything away from Lehighton, because they are a very good team and we saw that tonight.”

The Indians eventually took a 36-12 lead at the break, before the Lady Bulldogs (2-5) found their rhythm in the second half. Olewine caught fire in the third period, as she nailed three triples and scored all of her 13 points.

However, Blasiak dropped another pair of threes as Lehighton maintained a healthy lead at the end of three (51-29).

Down the stretch, the outdoor chill crept into the shooting touch of the Lady ‘Dawgs, as they were outscored 10-1 in the fourth.

“Defensively, I thought we took a step back, but on offense, even though we only scored 30 points, I thought we moved the ball around well and got some good shots,” Shankweiler said.

LOOKING AHEAD ... Lehighton moves on to play Pleasant Valley in the final of tonight’s championship.

BY THE NUMBERS ... Lehighton committed only eight turnovers, compared to Nolehi’s 17.

NORTHERN LEHIGH

Guelcher 0-0-0-0, Keller 0-0-0-0, L. Hoffman 0-0-0-0, Saeger 3-6-7-13, Griffith 0-0-0-0, D. Hoffman 0-2-2-2, Ziegler 0-0-0-0, Evans 1-0-0-2, Olewine 5-0-0-13. TOTALS: 9-8-9-30.

LEHIGHTON

Klotz 1-0-0-2, Brown 1-0-2-2, Frey 4-0-0-8, Long 1-0-0-3, Hibbler 1-0-0-2, Blasiak 8-0-0-21, Marchessault 0-0-0-0, Miller 0-0-0-0, Faust 9-6-6-25, Gaston 0-0-0-0, Buchinsky 0-0-0-0, Solomon 0-0-0-0, Schappel 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 25-6-8-63.

Northern Lehigh 5 7 17 1 - 30

Lehighton 20 16 15 12 - 63

Three pointers: NL - Olewine 3, Saeger 1; L - Blasiak 5, Faust 1, Long 1.