Panther Valley's match-up with Nativity on Tuesday was an important one.,

The Panthers needed two more victories to clinch a district playoff berth. But standing in the way of edging closer to that goal was Nativity's Jeff Yordy.Yordy, who leads the Schuylkill League in scoring at over 25 points per game kept up his fantastic play, tallying a game-high 36 points. It was Yordy's second consecutive 30-point perfomance and it was also enough to help the Hill Topper's come away with a 73-53 non-league victory.Panther Valley head coach Patrick Crampsie highlighted that two of their main goals were to slow down Nativity's transition game, and contain 1,000-point scorer Yordy. Unfortunately for the Panthers that didn't happen."Jeff is truly a special player," said Nativity head coach Kevin Kennedy. "If he's not named league player of the year, I'm going to have to make a few phone calls. The kid is nothing short of phenomenal."The Panthers also didn't help their own cause as they had eight first half turnovers."We will rarely run a man-to-man defense," said Kennedy. "I felt like we could pressure their guards tonight with our 1-3-1 zone and I thought the kids did a nice job of that."That solid zone defense and a huge second quarter from Yordy helped propel the Toppers into intermission with a 16-point advantage.However, Panther Valley got back into the game a little bit in the third. The Panthers closed within nine points, but then went cold, hitting just six out of 22 shots from the field."We did get some good looks, but they just weren't falling tonight," said Panther Valley coach Pat Crampsie. "It was our defense that wasn't up to par though, and that's on me. I'm surprised as to how poor we are playing on the defensive side of the ball."Panther Valley did a much better job on the glass in the second half, which is a reason why the Panthers were able to close the gap in the third. Kennedy certainly emphasized his displeasure with his team's effort in rebounding the basketball."Poor rebounding is a gigantic pet peeve of mine. I wasn't happy with the offensive rebounds Panther Valley was getting in the second half," said Kennedy. "I am going to work on something in the next two weeks to get these kids to rebound more effectively. We have a big game coming up against Mahanoy Area and we need to be prepared."With the loss, the Panthers now sit at 9-9 on the season with two huge road games coming up against Pine Grove and Palmerton."The next two games are must wins for us," said Crampsie. "Our backs are against the wall and I'm hoping our kids respond well when we hop on the bus Thursday afternoon."NATIVITYHunyara 3-0-0-6, Kaledas 4-1-3-10, Palamar 3-2-2-8, Yordy 12-10-11-36, Sabol 0-0-0-0, Greco 1-1-2-3, Mickey 0-0-0-0, DiNicola 0-0-0-0, McGovern 0-0-0-0, Piccioni 4-0-2-10; TOTALS: 27-14-19-73PANTHER VALLEYDubosky 3-0-0-6, Szczecina 7-2-2-22, Keo 0-0-0-0, Kusko 1-0-0-2, Stano 4-1-2-11, Owens 0-0-0-0, Hudicka 1-1-2-3, Ferryman 3-1-2-7, Nase 0-0-0-0, Vermillion 0-0-0-0, Horan 1-0-0-2; TOTALS: 20-5-8-53Nativity 19 16 17 21 - 73Panther Vy. 9 10 16 18 - 53Three-pointers: Nativity - Kaledas 1, Yordy 2, McGovern 2; Panther Valley - Szczecina 6, Stano 2