Everyone knows that a dance ends when the music stops.

The words, “Last Dance,” are imprinted upon the warmup shirts worn by Jim Thorpe’s senior players, and have been their moniker of motivation from a promise they made to each other last summer to win Schuylkill League and District 11 titles in their final year.

And now they have.

For 32 minutes on Saturday afternoon at Martz Hall, seniors Skyler Searfoss, Leila Hurley, Olivia Smelas, and Leah Snisky combined with junior Mackenzie Yuhas to leave no doubt as to who would be hoisting the District 11 Class 4A trophy after game’s end. They blitzed Allentown Central Catholic with a smothering defense that forced the Vikettes to pick up their dribbles and twist and turn, yet find nowhere to pass the ball.

How overwhelming was JT’s domination?

Central scored zero points in the second period, and went a stretch of over 11 minutes without a point. The Olympians beat their opponent - a defensive minded team - at its own game, holding them to an unfathomable total of 11 points for the entire game.

The precision of their performance came from every Olympian on the floor.

Snisky has quite possibly been the difference-maker during this championship season while playing in the company of three 1,000 point scorers. She was a force on offense and defense, hitting on short jumpers at one end of the court, and blocking shots at the other.

Hurley did what she does best - drilling three-pointers from the baseline - early in the game that appeared to break the spirit of the Vikettes, who could never stop the increasing deficit they had to overcome.

Smelas - the beast of the backboards - was snatching every rebound in sight to ensure there would be no put backs, no second chances that might give Central any bit of hope to make a comeback.

Searfoss was busy just being Skyler. A shooting guard turned point guard, Searfoss dribbled with amazing athletic agility through Central’s defenders, and drove through traffic into the paint for an off the glass layup, or dished the ball to a teammate for an open shot.

When Yuhas wasn’t stuck like a magnet to the hip of a Central offensive player, she was diving headfirst to the floor to save a loose ball from going out of bounds.

After the game, Coach Nadia Gauronsky said this title was dedicated to the entire community of Jim Thorpe. One by one, the players gave credit to their teammates amid the jubilation that spread across the hardwood floor of the iconic Martz Hall - a place Hurley had called their second home for the past four years.

This Jim Thorpe team has now danced through a very good North Schuylkill team four times this season - including the Schuylkill League title game a couple of weeks ago - and has dethroned an Allentown Central Catholic team that left them standing unsatisfied as runners up in the district finals last year.

But, now there’s more to do for this group of history makers.

Coach Gauronsky’s focus at practice this week has been to move her team past the hometown celebration parade, and into preparation for Wednesday night’s game against District 12’s Freire Charter in the opening round of the state tournament (7 p.m. at Jim Thorpe).

As long as the music plays on for these Jim Thorpe Olympians, so will the season of their last dance.