POTTSVILLE — Tamaqua and Jim Thorpe played each other for the third time this year Wednesday night and it was no charm for the Blue Raiders.

Jim Thorpe (26-0) put a choke hold on Tamaqua in the second half of the District 11 semifinal game en route to a 42-27 victory to advance to the tournament finals on Saturday.

‘We talked about trying to take them out of their comfort zone in the second half,” said JT head coach Rob Kovac. “We put some full-court pressure on them and it worked well for us.”

Worked well might be an understatement. The Lady Olympian defense held the Raiders to two points in the entire third quarter on a layup by Emily Titus with 2:40 to go. Even more remarkable was that Tamaqua managed just three shots from the floor during the full eight minutes.

“Give credit to their defense,” said Raider coach Erika Davis. “We came out flat and they got us out of our rhythm.”

After JT’s Skylar Searfoss opened the game with a layup off the center tap and then drove the length of the court for another to put her team up by four, Tamaqua (20-5) came back thanks to the shooting of Emma Kuczynski, who scored eight of her 14 points in the first session. Rebekah Hromyak’s three-pointer at 1:28 — combined with Kuczynski’s two free throws — gave Tamaqua a six-point lead until Leila Hurley dropped down a trey at the buzzer to pull Thorpe to within three.

The second quarter had both teams struggling to score as defenses caused turnovers and missed shots. Sophia Boyle’s three from the wing and Kuczynzki’s short jumper were all the points the Raiders could muster. JT’s Olivia Smelas scored on a put back after rebounding her own miss and then her turnaround shot in the paint put Thorpe ahead 21-19 at the break.

“I told our team we didn’t play well in the first half, but we were still ahead,” said Kovac. “We took too many threes, and when they came out in a 3-2 zone instead of the man to man we had practiced against, we got off our game a bit.”

Jim Thorpe kept Tamaqua dribbling around the perimeter in the third quarter, and when they did manage to work the ball inside or to the wing, there was no open space to put up a shot.

The Olympians outscored the Raiders 12-2 in the third quarter, and 21-8 in the second half as they worked the ball inside to Smelas, who scored off the pivot.

Searfoss, contested on each shot, scored eight of her game-high 19 points on short jumpers in the lane.

”We got tired and seemed like we were gasping, “ said Davis. “There wasn’t much spark, and we couldn’t put the ball in the basket. However well our game plan worked in the first half, we never got on the same page in the second.”

The Raiders didn’t score from the floor until Kuczynski hit on a short jumper with just 1:15 left in the contest. Meanwhile, Smelas scored off the glass four times to add to her total of 14.

“We were able to go high-low on them and got penetration through seams in their zone,” said Kovac.

“Leah Snisky was a big help off the bench tonight. She gives us more length on defense and pulled down some big rebounds.”

FUTURE FORTUNE … As good as both of these teams are, of the combined 19 players, Natalia Richards of Jim Thorpe is the only senior.

NEXT UP … Jim Thorpe will meet Bethlehem Catholic in the District 11 championship game on Saturday at 6 p.m. at Freedom High School in Bethlehem. Tamaqua will face Northwestern in the consolation Saturday at the Lehighton Area Elementary Center at 1 p.m. Both teams in the title game and the winner of the consolation game will qualify for the state tournament.

TAMAQUA

Kane 0-0-0-0, Hromyak 1-0-0-3, Boyle 1-0-0-3, Titus 2-1-2-5, Zuber 1-0-0-3. Frederickson 0-1-2-1, Kuczynski 4-4-6-12. TOTALS: 9-6-10-27.

JIM THORPE

Richards 2-0-0-4, Scott 0-0-0-0, Snisky 2-0-0-4, Berger 0-0-0-0, Hurley 1-0-0-3, Searfoss 8-3-4-19, Smelas 6-0-2-12, Craigie 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 19-3-6-42.

Tamaqua 14 5 2 6 - 27

Jim Thorpe 11 10 12 9 - 42

Three-pointers: T - Hromyak 1, Boyle 1, Zuber 1; JT- Hurley 1.