Lehighton head coach Rich Oertner stresses a team-first mentality.

Through the first two games of the season, the Indians have given him just that.Behind a balanced scoring attack and an unrelenting defense, Lehighton held off Marian 47-41 Monday night.The Indians (2-0) had four players score in double figures."The guys know we have to play as a unit," Oertner said. "There were times we threw seven or eight passes before we shot the ball. We drove in, and as soon as there was trouble, we'd turn around and kick it to a guy that was wide open."We preach shooting threes when the ball comes from the inside out. It's an easier shot taking it from the inside out, so we preach that. And we did that tonight."Lehighton's ability to utilize the long ball paid dividends on a night where buckets were hard to come by. Seven of the Indians' 15 made field goals were from beyond the arc, as all but one starter connected from deep.Damian Mele, who led the team with 17 points in Friday night's win over Palmerton, scored just three points against the Colts (0-1). But Caine Carpenter (12 points), Addison Howland (11), Andre McDowell (10) and Donnie Buchinsky (10) came up big against Marian."Damian struggled tonight shooting a little bit," Oertner said of Mele. "And that's OK. He started passing the ball more and we did fine."While shots weren't easy to come by for either side, the Indians raced out to a 7-0 lead in the first quarter, keeping the Colts without a field goal through nearly seven minutes of the opening frame."They came out in a triangle-and-two (defense) to take away (Brandon) Mohammed and (Tyler) Fritz," Marian head coach John Patton said of Lehighton's strategy. "We had open jumpers, we just couldn't make anything."I think it would have been different had a couple of those shots dropped early. But that's what happens. You have to fight through it."Marian pulled to within 17-15 at halftime, but the Indians were able to pull away using a 12-0 run after the intermission to take a 29-15 lead with 3:48 remaining in the third quarter.Marian cut the deficit to 34-25 at the end of the third quarter, but watched Lehighton utilize an 8-0 surge to go ahead 42-28 with 5:06 to play.The Colts answered with an 8-0 run of their own to make it 42-36 with 2:39 remaining before starting to foul to send the Indians to the line.Lehighton made five of its nine free throws in the final 2:12 of the game to secure the win."We're a little bit inexperienced," said Patton. "But I was glad (with) the way we fought, the way we came back."Those are the little things that you can take from that. Obviously, there's no good loss. But for us, we're still learning. We have stuff that we have to go through. The good thing about basketball is, in a couple of days, you get to try it again."TOP COLTS ... Mohammed and Noah Stauffer had nine points apiece for the Colts.LITTLE BIT MORE, LITTLE BIT LESS… Marian used 11 players against Lehighton, while the Indians stuck with their starting five throughout the duration of Monday night's contest.COMEBACK KIDS… Marian rallied to win the JV game, 49-48.LEHIGHTONCarpenter 4-2-3-12, McDowell 3-2-4-11, Buchinsky 3-3-4-10, Mele 1-1-2-3, Howland 4-2-2-11. TOTALS: 15-10-15-47.MARIANKarchner 0-0-0-0, Mohammed 2-5-5-9, Mummey 1-0-0-2, Stauffer 3-2-2-9, Fritz 1-0-0-2, Paisley 3-0-0-7, Collevechio 2-0-0-5, G. Miller 0-0-0-0, J. Miller 2-1-2-7, Maylath 0-0-0-0, Choley 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 14-8-9-41.Lehighton 7 10 17 13 - 47Marian 4 11 10 16 - 41Three-pointers: Lehighton - McDowell 3, Carpenter 2, Buchinsky 1, Howland 1. Marian - J. Miller 2, Collevechio 1, Paisley 1, Stauffer 1.