There was no chance Lehighton was going to take a one-win North Schuylkill team lightly.

The Indians can thank Pottsville for that.Just three days after the Crimson Tide handed them their first loss of the season, the Indians returned to the court focused - 36-point losses have a way of doing that.Lehighton took control of Friday's game midway through the opening quarter and rolled to a 54-33 Schuylkill League victory."The Pottsville game was a reality check for us," the Indians' Addison Howland said. "We were undefeated and feeling pretty good about ourselves, but Pottsville took it to us."To get blown out like that hurts. I think it definitely sharpened our focus coming into this game. We played a little angry tonight."It didn't take Lehighton long to shake off any lingering effects from its loss to the Tide. With the score tied at 7-7 midway through the opening quarter, Howland's three-pointer ignited a 10-0 Indian run to close the quarter."I was just 1-for-9 from three-point range the last two games, so the last couple days at practice I worked hard on my outside shooting," said Howland. "I missed my first three-pointer tonight, but I stayed confident."Good shooters need to keep shooting, so that's what I did. It felt good to hit that first one and then I was able to hit a couple of more later in the game."Howland showed he was equally adept at draining threes and driving hard to the basket. He finished the night with game-high totals of 17 points and nine rebounds."After the waxing we took the other night, it was good to bounce back and get this win," Lehighton coach Rich Oertner said. "We did a nice job defensively forcing turnovers and making them shoot from the perimeter. Caine Carpenter in particular had a strong defensive game."Offensively, I thought Addison (Howland) played really well for us. He gave them a lot of trouble with his ability to score from inside and outside."Lehighton's lead was still at double digits at halftime (29-17) thanks to a pair of second-quarter three-pointers from Andre McDowell.North Schuylkill made a push to get back in the game in the third quarter, scoring the first five points to cut the Lehighton lead to 27-20. But a Howland basket started an 8-0 Indian run and the Spartans never seriously threatened after that."We had a few empty possessions to start the third quarter and they cut into our lead," Oertner said. "But we were still getting good looks offensively so I wasn't too concerned. Once we got a couple of shots to fall we were able to pull away again."BALANCING ACT ... All five Lehighton starters contributed offensively. In addition Howland, the Indians got 11 points and several flashy assists from McDowell. Damian Mele chipped in nine points, Donovan Buchinsky added eight and Carpenter had seven points to go with his strong defensive performance.FOR THE RECORD ... Lehighton improved its record to 8-1 overall and 3-1 in league play. North Schuylkill falls to 1-8 overall and 0-4 in the league.GOING DEEP ... North Schuylkill hit six three-pointers in the game, but strong interrior defense by the Indians limited them to just five two-pointers.NORTH SCHUYLKILLStokes 1-0-0-2, Stavinsky 0-0-0-0, Bolinsky 3-0-0-8, Weist 2-3-6-7, Kovach 0-0-0-0, Roshannon 0-0-0-0, Burke 0-2-2-2, Guerro 3-0-0-9, Knerr 1-0-0-2, Kotzo 1-0-0-3, Kempsey 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 11-5-8-33.LEHIGHTONLawler 1-0-0-2, Troxell 0-0-0-0, Carpenter 2-3-4-7, McDowell 4-1-2-11, Buchinsky 4-0-0-8, Mele 3-2-2-9, Howland 7-0-0-17, Venuto 0-0-0-0, Schotz 0-0-0-0, Crum 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 21-6-8-54.N. Schuylkill 7 8 10 8 - 33Lehighton 17 10 11 10 - 54Three-pointers: North Schuylkill - Guerro 3, Bolinsky 2, Kotzo 1. Lehighton - Howland 3, McDowell 2, Mele 1.