The Winter Solstice may have arrived, but there was a lot of heat spewing from Northern Lehigh’s gymnasium on Tuesday evening in the opening round of the annual Slatington Rotary Club Christmas Basketball Tournament.

Pre-tournament favorite Palmerton managed to dodge a late surge from Jim Thorpe to hang a 56-46 loss on the Olympians and in the process continues its unbeaten season, improving to 9-0.

Host Northern Lehigh never could get on track, succumbing to a rapidly improving Lehighton team in the nightcap, 60-35.

The stage is set for what could end up being an interesting championship game this evening at 8 p.m. between Palmerton and Lehighton. It will mark the second meeting between the two teams, with the Blue Bombers hoisting the victory flag over the Tribe in the opening game of the season for both teams almost a month ago in Palmerton.

In the opener this evening, Jim Thorpe and Northern Lehigh will meet in a 6:30 p.m. consolation game.

Palmerton-Thorpe

The way Palmerton exploded out of the blocks had Jim Thorpe looking to counter punch with more cross hooks and jabs. The Olympians were being buried by the quicker Blue Bombers, and twice were up against the ropes with a telltale signs of a running clock lurking.

Palmerton was pure basketball, as it looked impressive behind its dynamic 1-2 punch of Brayden Hosier and Matt Machalik. They combined for 48 of their team’s 56 points, with the former taking bows at 27 points, and the latter dropping in a cool 21 points.

What drove the Olympians dizzy and daffy in a first-half getaway was the pressure from the Bombers defense, which was choking and stifling to the point that the Olympians had 13 turnovers by halftime - eight of those coming in the opening quarter.

“We pulled it off because we had that lead and with having to come right back and play again (today), I just wanted to give our kids a break,” Palmerton coach Ken Termini explained about why he ratcheted down his team’s pressure defense.

“We came out strong and put some ball pressure and that worked out well… but back-to-back nights you really don’t want to do that for 32 minutes, But when we took that off they were able to climb back into the game.”

That early pressure allowed the Bombers to force an up-tempo game as they soared in front 18-4 after a quarter.

Palmerton stretched that lead slightly in the second quarter, building a 34-17 lead at the half. The Bombers seemed like they were carving up the leftover Christmas turkey when Machalik and Hosier started the third quarter rolling and the lead grew to 44-19 at the 6:09 mark of the third quarter.

But the Olympians weren’t going down quietly as they put on a terrific comeback bid. With Noah Rosahac using his wide body and 6-6 frame to help fuel the rally. Christian Barile, Kendall Herron and Andrew Warner suddenly found a rhythm as well as Thorpe went on a 12-0 run late in the third quarter.

Things got even more interesting when Herron and Rosahac became more active to open the fourth chapter, leading their team on a 6-0 run to pull the Olympians within, 46-37.

But Thorpe never got any closer as unsung senior Kendall Robinson stepped to the fore and dropped in the final five points for the winners to send them off to the championship game this evening.

“We came around in that second half because we cut down the turnovers, we found the open man more and battled hard,” said Jim Thorpe coach Jason McElmoyle. “We didn’t do a very good job of protecting the ball in the first half. Of course, they took the press off, which helped and then we settled down a lot.”

JIM THORPE

Herron 4-1-2-9, Spruill 2-0-0-4, Warner 2-2-4-6, Domski 0-0-0-0, Goldberg 1-0-0-2, DiSanto 0-2-2-2, McHugh 1-0-0-2, Barile 4-0-0-10, Rosahac 3-2-4-8, Heydt 0-3-4-3. TOTALS: 17-10-16-46.

PALMERTON

Machalik 8-5-10-21, Sebelin 0-0-0-0, Robinson 2-1-3-5, Reph 1-1-2-3, Leister 0-0-0-0, Grammes 0-0-0-0, Hosier 9-6-6-27, Stahler 0-0-0-0, Anthony 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 20-13-21-56.

Jim Thorpe 4 13 14 15 - 46

Palmerton 18 21 7 10 - 56

Three-pointers: Jim Thorpe - Barile 2; Palmerton - Hosier 3.

Lehighton-No. Lehigh

Lehighton left little doubt with an early getaway featuring a trio of scorers in double digits. For openers, there was Owen Serfass who poured in 18 points, Blake Roberts didn’t play like a second fiddle with his 12 points, and rising freshman sensation Cole Dietz drained a dozen points, too.

The Tribe slowly eased in front 10-7, getting a trey from Dietz to open the game, Roberts dropped in three points and Luke Blauch got into the scoring attack to build the lead.

The Bulldogs tried to stay close behind Connor Simms - who had a banner night with 15 points - and Ethan Kunkle as they trailed 13-9 late in the opening quarter, before Lehighton kicked it up a few notches.

Baskets by Serfoss, Roberts and Dietz helped extend the margin to a 21-9 after eight minutes, which quickly became 27-9 early in the second quarter. By halftime the lead swelled to 36-13, leaving very little doubt about the outcome.

“Our biggest thing was to get out to a quick start,” Lehighton coach Trevor Miller said about his team’s game plan. “We didn’t do that in the first game against them. I thought we found our open shooters early and did what we had to do. I was pleased with our ball movement too. We did the little things right.”

LEHIGHTON

Serfass 8-2-3-18, Johnson 2-0-0-4, Roberts 5-0-0-12, Roth 3-1-2-7, Dietz 4-0-0-12, Light 0-0-0-0, Blauch 1-2-4-4, N. Hawk 0-0-0-0, Acosta 0-1-2-1, Smith 1-0-0-2, B. Hawk 0-0-0-0, Kalbach 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 24-6-11-60.

NORTHERN LEHIGH

Kunkle 4-0-5-8, Simms 5-3-5-15, B. LoPinto 1-0-2-3, Daubert 0-1-2-1, N. Buskirk 3-0-2-6, Novicki 0-0-0-0, C. LoPinto 0-0-0-0, B. Buskirk 0-0-0-0, Salih 1-0-0-2, Erdo 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 14-4-16-35.

Lehighton 21 15 17 7 - 60

Northern Lehigh 9 4 15 7 - 35

Three-pointers: Lehighton - Dietz 4, Roberts 2; Northern Lehigh - Simms 2, B. LoPinto 1.