Yturrino buzzer-beater lifts Indians

Defeating a team twice, let alone three times during the course of a season is not an easy task, especially if that team is a rival.

Lehighton was able to do just that on Tuesday, getting a huge 44-41 win over Jim Thorpe on a last-second buzzer-beater to keep itself alive in the District 11 Class 4A playoff hunt.

“We’ve faced a lot of adversity lately, losing seven straight, and we’ve talked at great length about how we need to keep grinding and working, and that’s what we did tonight,” said Indians’ head coach Trevor Miller. “Tonight was just a back and forth slugfest that could’ve gone either way, but we grinded it out.”

The game was close throughout with neither team holding more than a seven-point lead.

Lehighton (7-11, 5-7) looked to be stealing the game’s momentum in the third quarter as it built a 28-21 at the 6:13 mark. After leading by five at the half, the Indians were able to harness the energy from the intermission advantage, forcing Thorpe into three early third quarter turnovers.

But turnovers and foul trouble became an issue as well for the Indians, who committed six in third, which let the Olympians (5-14, 3-8) back in the ball game.

Thorpe took advantage of the Tribe miscues, and their leading scorer Zach Hunsicker being on the bench with four fouls to go on an 8-0 run to grab the lead with 3:43 left in the frame. James Adames was the spark plug for the Olympians offense, scoring eight points in the quarter as Thorpe took a 33-31 lead into the final period.

With the score tied at 37 and just over two minutes left, it looked like Lehighton came up with the knockout blow. The Indians went on a quick 4-0 run off back-to-back buckets by Richie Yturrino.

But as it did throughout the night, Thorpe countered with four straight points of its own on a transition bucket by Caiden Hurley, and an offensive put back by Adames to tie the score at 41-41.

The Indians had possession of the ball and elected to play for the final shot. After the ball was deflected out-of-bounds, Lehighton had a side out-of-bounds play with 3.6 seconds remaining.

The pass went into Yturrino, who initially mishandled it, but he gathered up the ball around the top of the key, raised up and hit the shot. The game-winner appeared to be after the buzzer sounded, but the referee closest to Yturrino called it a good bucket.

“They denied Ben (Schatz), so I flashed to the ball, but then I kind of fumbled it a bit,” said Yturrino. “I was able to gather it up and then I threw up a prayer and that prayer was answered. This win was a big one for us, we pushed through and got it.”

LEADERS ... Yturrino led the way with 14 for the Indians with Jack Lorenz stepping up with 10 and Hunsicker adding nine. Chris Condly was the Olympians offense in the first half, scoring 10 of his game-high 16 in the first half. Adames added 12.

COLD SHOOTING ... Lehighton’s 1-3-1 defense gave JT problems, mostly because it couldn’t make shots. Thorpe went 2-of-17 from three-point range “I think we settled a bit, I think we settled for outside shots,” said Olympians’ head coach Jason McElmoyle. “When you’re not shooting well and then not rebounding well you put yourself in position to lose the game.

JIM THORPE

Condly 5 4-4 16, Richards 1 0-0 2, Hurley 2 3-6 7, Ivey 0 0-0 0, Adames 6 0-1 12, Lauer 0 1-2 1, Herron 0 0-0 0, Marykwas 1 1-1 3. TOTALS: 15 9-14 41.

LEHIGHTON

Hunsicker 4 0-0 9, Lorenz 3 2-3 10, Wolverton 0 0-0 0, Beatty 1 0-0 2, Costenbader 3 0-0 6, Yturrino 5 3-4 14, E. Lutz 0 1-2 1, Schatz 1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 17 6-9 44.

Jim Thorpe 8 10 15 8 — 41

Lehighton 8 15 8 11 — 44

Three-pointer: JT - Condly 2; L - Lorenz 2, Yturrino 1, Hunsicker 1.