Is the Lehighton girls’ basketball team finally hitting its stride?

Is this upstart team finally coming into its own?

It appears that could be the case.

In these uncertain times, the Indians aren’t counting the games to play, but taking it game-by-game.

Indian head coach Joe Berezwick smiled a lot Thursday evening following a 60-48 win over Tamaqua.

It was familiar hardwood for Berezwick, who coached the Tamaqua program for numerous successful seasons before taking the Lehighton job.

“I think we’re starting to somewhat come into our own,” Berezwick said. “This was a big game for us from the standpoint that we were 4-4 and basically at a crossroad. So it was nice to come in and do things we did tonight.”

Hailey Miller was the key throughout the game for the Indians. She dropped a game-high 22 points to lead a trio of double-digit haymakers as Taylor Bowman and Abigail Meckes juiced the nets for 14 points apiece.

“Miller’s our leader,” Berezwick said. “I like everyone on our team, and everyone on our team likes Hailey. She’s our point guard. That’s a very important position, and she has done a great job for us there.”

It was Tamaqua that seemed to do all the things right at the onset. The Raiders were rebounding, getting key points from Serena Jones, McKenna Meckes and Emma Hope, which helped them build an early 11-7 lead.

But the wheels were starting to go flat, mainly because the Raiders weren’t catching easy passes and were forcing things, which combined to produce 19 first-half turnovers.

“We’re not playing good basketball at all,” Tamaqua coach Erica Davis said. “We are making unforced errors ... all the little things are mounting up and you see what happened out there.”

After rallying to take a 14-13 lead after one quarter, Lehighton erupted for 16 more points in the second quarter. After Jones put Tamaqua on top 15-14, it was all Lehighton. The Indians reeled off a 10-0 run featuring Bowman, Miler and Ashley Marchessault steering the ship. By the break, the Indians were sailing along with a 30-20 lead.

There seemed to be a glimmer of hope in the Raiders’ camp early in the second half when Meckes, Jones and Hope tallied fielders to cut the deficit to 34-26, but there weren’t enough defensive stops by the Raiders to cool off the visitors.

Lehighton settled in over the final three-plus minutes of the third quarter to stretch the lead to 50-32. Miller, Marchessault and Bowman were playing tag-team in the surge.

Even though Tamaqua ran off an 11-2 advantage to open the stretch run, there wasn’t enough time to make up the shortage. And before the final klaxon sounded, the Indians had put it into cruise control to reach the finish line.

NAME GAME ... Both teams featured a Meckes, but Lehighton’s Abigail and Tamaqua’s McKenna are not related.

TOP RAIDERS … Tamaqua did manage three double figure scorers as Meckes tallied 15, Jones added 14 and Emma Hope chipped in 10.

MORE NUMBERS ... Lehighton held a 42-36 edge on the boards. Meckes had nine rebounds to lead Lehighton, while Jones and Hope had nine boards apiece for Tamaqua. The Indians shot the ball well, hitting 29 of 55 attempts (53 percent). Tamaqua was just 18-for-48 (38 percent).

QUOTE OF THE NIGHT … “We opened with Jim Thorpe and our third game was North Schuylkill ... since then I like how we’ve played,” said Berezwick referring to the league’s top two programs.

OPENER … Lehighton claimed the JV game, 37-21.

LEHIGHTON

McHugh 0-0-0-0, Marchessault 5-0-0-10, Miller 10-1-4-22, Bowman 7-0-0-14, Meckes 5-0-2-10, Fisher 2-0-0-4, Gaston 0-0-0-0, Solomon 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 29-1-6-60.

TAMAQUA

Kane 1-0-0-2, S. Hope, S. 0-0-0-0, Jones 5-4-6-14, Meckes 6-1-2-15, Boyle 2-0-0-5, E. Hope 3-4-4-10, Plasha 1-0-2-2. TOTALS: 18-9-14-48.

Lehighton 14 16 20 10 - 60

Tamaqua 13 7 12 16 - 48

Three-pointers: Lehighton - Miller 1; Tamaqua - Meckes 2, Boyle 1.