Palmerton needed a little bit of last-second magic.

And on a night when the Blue Bombers honored their seniors, who better to deliver in the clutch than one of their upperclassmen.

Owen Buck’s basket at the buzzer lifted Palmerton to a 49-47 win over Jim Thorpe on Monday night.

Buck’s only points of the contest capped a remarkable Senior Night for the Blue Bombers, who have now won four straight after a 2-4 start to the season.

“Everybody dreams of making that one basket where you win the game for your team, or whatever the situation might be,” said Buck. “I had a rough night tonight trying to find the basket. Thankfully, our other center, Hunter (Connell, also a senior), stepped in and had a huge game tonight. Kody (Kratzer) was playing out of his mind once again.

“But it never comes down to just one shot. At the end of the day, it a great win over a quality team, and you can’t ask for anything better.”

Kratzer scored 22 of his game-high 26 points in the first half for Palmerton (6-4).

The senior’s final point was a free throw with 45.2 seconds left to tie it at 47-47. Kratzer had the ball in his hands in the final possession, driving to the hoop and putting up a shot with 3.5 seconds to play.

Buck emerged with the rebound and delivered the game-winner.

“I was kind of surprised; I thought they would be pressuring me a little bit more bringing the ball up the court so I couldn’t take as much time as I did off the clock,” said Kratzer, who brought the ball up the court with 21.1 seconds left. “Once I saw him (Kaiden Herron) playing back a little bit, I knew I could make a little move and kind of go by him, and either if he stepped up fast enough I could dish off to one of my teammates, and if he didn’t I could shoot the layup.

“I shot it and missed, but Buck cleaned it up and hit the buzzer beater.”

Kratzer’s torrid start included 13 of the team’s 16 points in the first quarter.

Down the stretch, the Blue Bombers needed all of them to turn back the Olympians (7-6).

Thorpe inched closer during the fourth quarter on the strength of three treys from Derryl Fisher.

“Our game plan was to try to take away the middle, and I thought we made a good adjustment with that to start the second half,” said Palmerton head coach Ken Termini. “But then they got hot from the outside, and you have to make another adjustment without fouling.

“Give Fisher credit; he made them when it counted and got them back in it. It was a great team effort from both sides.”

Thorpe stayed within reach throughout, but a pair of threes from seniors Tyler Stuck and Chase Reph gave the Bombers a 39-29 lead heading to the fourth.

Kaiden Herron scored the last of his 15 points with 3:05 left to put the Olympians ahead 47-46, their first lead of the game.

“I like the fact that we don’t quit,” said Jim Thorpe head coach Jason McElmoyle. “But we can’t dig a hole like that for three quarters. We have to focus on the fundamentals for 32 minutes, not for eight minutes.

“This one is tough, because we had an opportunity to win it. But give Palmerton credit, they played better than us tonight.”

CHANGE OF PLANS ... Termini acknowledged the final sequence wasn’t exactly how he drew it up. “We were going to take a timeout to set something up, but they didn’t press us so we just went for the last shot,” he said. “And it worked out.”

SECOND-HALF SURGE ... Fisher scored 11 of his 13 points after the intermission. “He’s a very fast guard that can get into the paint,” said McElmoyle. “He’s doing a great job of getting in there and knocking down shots when he has the opening. We’re happy with the way he played.”

EVEN ... Kratzer had as many points (22) at halftime as Thorpe’s team.

JIM THORPE

Condly 2-2-2-6, McHugh 0-0-0-0, Richards 2-0-0-5, Hurley 0-2-4-2, Fisher 5-0-0-13, Ivey 0-0-6-0, Herron 5-5-8-15, Marykwas 2-2-4-6. TOTALS: 16-11-24-47.

PALMERTON

Connell 1-2-2-4, Kratzer 8-8-13-26, White 1-0-0-3, Reph 0-0-0-0, Whitney 0-0-0-0, Sebelin 0-0-0-0, Bates 0-0-0-0, Hosier 0-0-0-0, Stuck 3-1-2-8, Frank 0-0-0-0, Buck 1-0-1-2, Machalik 2-2-3-6. TOTALS: 16-13-20-49.

Jim Thorpe 9 13 7 18 - 47

Palmerton 16 13 10 10 - 49

Three-pointers: Jim Thorpe - Fisher 3, Richards 1. Palmerton - Kratzer 2, White 1, Stuck 1.