There are 32 minutes in a high school basketball game, and none more important in a close contest than the final eight.

Monday night, the Tamaqua boys’ basketball team outscored Jim Thorpe 17-4 in the fourth period to pull away for a 60-46 victory.

With 7:10 left to play, JT’s Pierce Gothard caught a pass from Ben Goldberg and scored a layup to give the winless Olympians a 44-43 lead.

Following a jump shot by Tamaqua’s Noah Mateyak, Mark Domski scored for Thorpe to give the home team its final lead at 46-45 with 6:35 to go. The Raiders would score the final 15 points to close out the win. Leading the charge was Connor Dillon, who scored nine of his game-high 25 points in the final session.

“He’s a pure scorer from anywhere on the court,” said Raiders’ coach Jim Barron. He can sneak by defenders for layups, and hit from the outside as well. He certainly came up big for us tonight.”

The game began as if Tamaqua (4-3) was going to easily handle the Olympians. After a few early ties, two layups by Dillon during a 9-0 run gave his team a 16-7 lead with 1:32 left in the first period. Seven turnovers and several missed shots hurt Thorpe’s attack, but Brody Schrantz nailed a three-ball to end the period to slice the deficit to six points.

There was a bit of a reversal in the flow during the second period. as the Raiders turned the ball over five times and missed several in-close scoring opportunities, including three uncontested layups.

Down 22-10, Thorpe manufactured a strong comeback led by five points from Domski, a driving layup from Aaron Curran and three-pointers by Ethan Moore and Schrantz to cut the Raiders’ lead to 29-26 before the intermission.

“We played good defense with our match up zone, especially in the second and third periods,” said Jim Thorpe coach Brian Bednar. “We were also very patient in our halfcourt offense that allowed us opportunities to get some open looks from the outside and some lay ups down low.”

In the third quarter, the Olympians continued their solid play on both ends of the court. Goldberg opened the scoring with a layup following a minute long dribble-and-pass maneuver when no shots were taken.

Michael Styka then scored six straight points for a 35-28 Raiders’ lead, but they couldn’t yet put away the feisty Olympians. Goldberg’s bank shot brought his team to within one at 43-42 with under a minute left in the third.

The stage was set for Thorpe (0-8) to get its first win, but the Raiders had other plans as they ran away with the scoring in the fourth period, holding Thorpe scoreless over the final six minutes.

“We’re young and we’re learning,” said Bednar. “We had three sophomores and a freshman on the floor for most of the second half, but I was very pleased with our effort and how we competed.”

Meanwhile, Barron said his veteran group did a great job closing out the victory.

“We have several three and four-year starters,” he said, “We played with great energy and aggressiveness in the game, especially in the fourth period.

“We have to take better care of the ball, but give Jim Thorpe credit. They played hard and took us out of our game for a while, but we snapped out of it and got it back at the end.”

WEAVING BASKETS … Jim Thorpe utilized a variation of the dribble-and-pass weave at the top of the key on offense. They ran time off the clock, and scored several clutch baskets from inside and outside the paint.

START TO FINISH … Tamaqua’s Dillon was a deciding factor in building a lead for the Raiders in the first period by scoring 12 points, and also in the fourth period when he added nine more to his total of 25.

TAMAQUA

Dillon 11-2-4-25, Mateyak 3-3-4-10, Styka 5-0-0-10, Kane 3-2-2-8, Ansbach 3-0-0-7, McCabe 0-0-0-0. Vecolotis 0-0-0-0, Kamant 0-0-0-0, Davis 0-0-0-0, Tamagini 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 25-7-60.

JIM THORPE

Domski 3-2-2-9, Goldberg 4-0-0-9, Gothard 3-0-0-7, Aar. Curran 2-2-4-6, Schrantz 2-0-0-6, Moore 2-0-0-5, J. Spruill 1-0-0-2, Z. Spruill 1-0-0-2. TOTALS: 18-4-46.

Tamaqua 16 13 14 17 - 60

Jim Thorpe 10 16 16 4 - 46

Three-pointers: Tamaqua - Ansbach 1, Mateyak 1, Dillon 1; Jim Thorpe - Schrantz 2, Domski 1, Moore 1, Goldberg 1, Gothard 1.