POTTSVILLE - Jim Thorpe coach Rob Kovac knew in order to beat Blue Mountain on Saturday his ball club had to get off to a good start.

Unfortunately for the Olympians, it was Blue Mountain that jumped out to a quick lead.The Eagles 21-0 run to start the ball game was more than enough to advance them to the District 11 AAA semifinal as they defeated Jim Thorpe 47-29 at Martz Hall.Defensively, Blue Mountain came into this one with some intensity. The Eagles held Schuylkill League leading scorer Kayley Kovac to just seven first half points on 3-of-14 shooting. They swarmed Kovac every time she touched the ball and then were able to rebound and run the floor."I think we played well and most importantly, I think we defended very well," said Blue Mountain coach Ruth Weidman. "This was our first playoff win since 2009, so we're happy to get the victory tonight and advance to the next round."The Olympians finally got their first bucket at the 4:12 mark in the second quarter off of a Kayley Kovac free throw."Our biggest fear coming into this was getting off to a bad start," said Kovac. " This is a completely foreign environment for our kids and Blue Mountain did its job. That's a good basketball team and they showed that tonight."Once you get down 10, 12, 14 points, then it becomes a mental thing and Blue Mountain certainly had a lot to do with that."Blue Mountain junior forward Julia Kutz also had a lot to do with that as well.Kutz protected the rim on the defensive side of the ball and also was very successful against the Olympians 1-3-1 defense. She hurt the Olympians from the baseline time and time again, which was a big reason for the 21-0 run in the first half.Kutz finished with a game-high 24 points, and was a perfect 10-for-10 from the foul line."They keyed on Abby Fanelli a lot throughout the night and it was the rest of our player's job to find Julia and they did that," said Weidman. "Julia played great and she finished off all her opportunities."After the treacherous first half start for Jim Thorpe, it settled down a bit in the second half. The Olympians matched the Eagles in scoring as they deadlocked at 18 points a piece in the third and fourth quarter.It was just a little too late for Thorpe to mount any type of run."When we got our feet underneath us a little bit we didn't play bad basketball," said Kovac. "Unfortunately, that came at a point when we're already down 20-some points. Once we started to hit a few buckets, I thought we played a decent game. We just have to keep working hard. The girls gained some valuable experience here tonight."1,000 POINTS... Blue Mountain senior guard Abby Fanelli surpassed the 1,000-point mark in the game. Fanelli needed eight points to reach the milestone. She finished with 12 points on the night.JIM THORPERichards 0-0-0-0, P. Kovac 2-1-1-6, Ohl 1-0-2-2, K. Kovac 7-4-5-18, Waselus 0-0-0-0, Lignore 0-0-0-0, Cressman 0-0-0-0, Condly 1-0-0-3, Gabel 0-0-0-0, Fasolino 0-0-0-0. Totals 11-5-8-29.BLUE MOUNTAINKaledas 0-2-2-2, Fanelli 4-1-1-12, Moyer 0-0-0-0, Kutz 7-10-1024, Ebling 2-0-1-4, Challenger 1-1-23, Dean 0-1-2-1, McQuillan 0-0-0-0, Martin 0-0-0-0, Miller 0-0-0-0, Umbenhauer 0-0-0-0, Gordon 0-1-2-1. Totals 14 16-20 47.Jim Thorpe 0 11 7 11 - 29Blue Mtn. 13 15 9 9 - 47Three-pointers: JT- P. Kovac 1, Condly 1; BM- Fanelli 3