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JT girls cruise

If the preseason hype about Jim Thorpe was to be questioned, the Lady Olympians answered the doubters in their 61-33 win over Lehighton in the opening games for each team Friday night.

Thorpe never trailed from the tip off, despite beginning the contest missing five of its first six shots. Lehighton, equally cold at the start, managed to tie the game at four on Hailey Miller’s driving layup at 4:45 of the first period.

But a short shot off the glass from JT’s Skyler Searfoss gave her team a lead that they never relinquished.

Thorpe coach Nadia Pavuk expected Lehighton to defend her team with a triangle-and-two zone defense.

“We thought we could free up Leah Snisky for some good looks,” she said. Snisky delivered on her coach’s call, scoring all of her 10 points in the first half on five jump shots from around the perimeter.

A 9-0 JT run ended with Miller’s two free throws, but another 19-5 burst by the Olympians put the game virtually out of reach midway through the second period after Gabby Cinicola nailed a three from the top of the key.

“We got some good looks at the basket early, but nothing seemed to fall,“ said Lehighton coach Joe Berezwick. “Our defense was pretty effective during that stretch, but they’re a great team. We fell far behind, but our kids never lost their confidence against one of the best teams in the state, and I believe we’ll be competitive against the teams in our division. Right now, we’re just happy to be playing basketball again.”

Ahead by 25 at the half, Thorpe kept pouring it on in the third. Leila Hurley fired up a three-pointer and Olivia Smelas scored on a layup before the Tribe found a little rhythm in their offensive game, scoring six straight points on a layup and a bank shot by Taylor Bowman, and another layup by Kelsey Gaston on a feed from Abigail Meckes. A 13-4 run by Thorpe was fueled with baskets from Hurley, Smelas, and Searfoss.

“We did some good things tonight,” said Pavuk. “We got them out of their triangle and were able to score inside the paint.”

Pavuk noted some improvements her team has to work on despite the lop sided victory.

”Our fast breaks off transitions could improve, but after 11 months of virtually no basketball, this can be expected,” she said. “We need to box out better. They got too many second and third chances to score.”

The Olympians had balanced scoring led by Hurley’s 15 points, 10 from both Snisky and Searfoss and nine from Smelas. Miller paced the Indians with 13 points.

FLOOR FOULS

... The game was physical with many hard fouls sending players from both teams crashing to the floor. Jim Thorpe’s Mackenzie Yuhas, a sophomore starter, injured her ankle early in the first period while jumping to block a pass and did return.

COVID-BALL

... The effects of the pandemic were front and center before and during the game. Only Lehighton parents were allowed to enter the vacuous gymnasium. Players were seated six feet apart which made coach instruction during timeouts a bit of as challenge. A new rule put in this year is the “media timeout” that takes place halfway between each period. This is for players to catch their breaths and get some relief from wearing masks while running up and down the court. Officials pushed up their whistles with their hands from inside their masks when making calls, although one tried out his hand held electronic whistle in the second half.

JIM THORPE

Hurley 6-0-0-15, Snisky 5-0-0-10, Searfoss 2-6-8-10, O. Smelas 4-1-2-9, Yuhas 3-0-0-6, Fiorito 3-0-0-6, Cinicola 1-0-0-3, H. Smelas 1-0-1-2, Hartman 0-0-0-0, Ginopolas 0-0-0-0, Wainwright 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 21-4-11-61.

LEHIGHTON

Miller 5-2-2-13, Meckes 2-2-3-6, Bowman 2-0-0-4, Gaston 2-0-0-4, McHugh 1-0-0-2, Solomon 1-0-0-2, Hauser 1-0-0-2, Haley 0-0-0-0, Williams 0-0-0-0, Gustafson 0-0-2-0, McGee 0-0-0-0, Marchessault 0-0-2-0. TOTALS: 14-4-10-33.

Jim Thorpe 15 23 16 7 - 61

Lehighton 6 7 10 10 - 33

Three pointers: Jim Thorpe - Hurley 3, Cinicola 1. Lehighton - Miller 1.