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From the Republican-Herald:
Pine Grove 62 Jim Thorpe 51
JIM THORPE – Kyler Burke scored 20 points and Brady Burke provided 18 as the Cardinals rolled past the Olympians in a Division I game.
J.T. Otto had a team-high 13 points, including three of Jim Thorpe’s eight 3-pointers on the night.
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From the Republican-Herald:
Jim Thorpe 69 Tamaqua 56
JIM THORPE – P.J. Johnson had a game-high 19 points, while Jaquan Brown added 18 in the Olympians’ Division I victory over the Raiders.
Brown scored 10 of his points in the third as Jim Thorpe held a 22-8 scoring advantage in the quarter.
Dean DiBonifazio and Darius Clark had 12 points apiece for the Olympians.
Zach Lakitsky led Tamaqua with 14 points, while Mike Streisel (13) and Jake Fegley (10) also hit in double figures.
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From the Standard-Speaker:
The first and fourth quarters were two different stories for Marian on Saturday afternoon in Hometown.
The Colts jumped out to a healthy 21-8 advantage and seemed poised to blow their gym’s doors off.
But Thorpe battled back, before Marian survived the Olympians’ late run and nine missed free throws to escape, 48-43.
The Colts can credit their first quarter spurt to Chris Barletta and Ryan Gimbi as that pair combined for 19 of 21 points.
Read the full story here >>.
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From the Republican-Herald:
Blue Mountain 62 Jim Thorpe 47
ORWIGSBURG – Jake Cryts paced a trio of double-digit scorers with a game-high 20 points as the Eagles defeated the Olympians in a Division I game.
Mike Tobash added 16 points and Kyle O’Brien netted 14 for Blue Mountain, which used a 30-12, second-half outburst to take control.
J.T. Otto and P.J. Johnson each scored 13 for Jim Thorpe, while Dean DiBonifazio added 12.
Jim Thorpe 64 Panther Valley 24
JIM THORPE – Celeste Robinson continued her scoring tear, going for 27 points, as the Olympians routed the Panthers in a Division I game.
Robinson recorded 17 points in the first half as Jim Thorpe built a 34-10 lead. Kristin Lawrence added 13 points and Chelsea Smelas pitched in 12 for the Olympians.
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From the Standard-Speaker:
The three-point torch was lit for the Jim Thorpe Olympians on Monday night and J.T. Otto had the match with three early long balls as the Olympians shot out to a 9-3 lead over visiting North Schuylkill.
By game’s end, however, the Spartans defensive attack extinguished Otto’s hot hand and the Olympians 51-46 in a Schuylkill League Division 1 contest.
It was a North Schuylkill 9-0 run in the first that shut down Thorpe’s shooting attack and proved to be pivotal.
“It’s been up and down for us all year in games and as far as the whole season goes,” North Schuylkill coach Curt Ziegmont said.
It was an up-and-down game as the teams swapped turnovers and layups for most of the second, third, and fourth quarters.
Jim Thorpe can credit its hard fought play in the second half to its backcourt tandem of Dean Dibonifazio and P.J. Johnson, a duo which combined for 22 of Thorpe’s 27 second half points.
But North Schuylkill had the night’s star in center Brandon McCloskey, who tallied 14 rebounds and led the Spartans with 16 points.
“Brandon is a hard worker on the glass and has a lot of passion for the game,” Ziegmont said. “When we have four guards in there, we really rely on him to rebound the ball for us and he does a great job.”
With the win, North Schuylkill improved to 8-6 and moved within three more victories of qualifying for the District 11 tournament.
“We just need to take it one game at a time,” Ziegmont said. “That has been our motto all year long”.
NORTH SCHUYLKILL (51)
Rakowsky 3 0-2 7, Meyer 2 2-2 7, Chernewski 1 0-0 2, Cicioni 1 0-0 3, Skinner 2 0-0 4, Damiter 3 1-1 7, McCloskey 5 6-10 16, Gallagher 0 0-0 0, Walsh 2 1-2 5. Totals 17 10-17 51.
JIM THORPE (46)
Dibonifazio 6 1-1 14, Prontnicki 0 0-0 0, Moronta 0 0-0 0, Munoz 0 0-0 0, Ciavarella 1 0-0 2, McGill 0 0-0 0, Otto 4 0-0 2, Brown 0 0-0 0, Johnson 5 7-10 16. Totals 16 8-11 46.
NSHS……………………………… 13 6 14 18 – 51
JTHS ……………………………….9 10 13 14 – 46
3-FG: Rakowsky, Meyer, Cicioni. Otto 4, Johnson, Dibonifazio.
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From the Republican-Herald:
TOWER CITY – Dean DiBonifazio paced four players in double figures with 20 points as Jim Thorpe defeated Williams Valley 73-62 in a non-league boys’ basketball game Saturday.
P.J. Johnson added 18 points, Dane Ciavarella netted 12 and Thomas Prontnicki scored 10 for the Olympians, who used a 22-10, first-quarter run to take control.
DiBonifazio then helped seal the victory, shooting 8-for-12 from the foul line in the fourth quarter. He finished the game 12-for-16 from the charity stripe. As a team, Jim Thorpe was 16-for-25.
Freshman Brendan Miller led Williams Valley with 19 points, while Colin Harrison added 11.
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From the Republican-Herald:
Panther Valley 52 Jim Thorpe 47
LANSFORD – Zach Stanko scored eight of his 14 points in overtime as the Panthers outlasted the Olympians in a Division I game.
Dean DiBonifazio hit three 3-pointers and scored 17 points to lead Jim Thorpe, while P.J. Johnson added 14.
Nate Mathewson also scored 14 points for Panther Valley, while Nick McArdle added 13.
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From the Republican-Herald:
PINE GROVE – Brady Burke scored 11 of his game-high 24 points in the fourth quarter as Pine Grove rallied past Jim Thorpe 53-41 in a Schuylkill League Division I boys’ basketball game Friday night.
Dean DiBonifazio drained five 3-pointers and had 17 points for Jim Thorpe, which led 36-35 after three quarters.
The Cardinals answered with a pressure defense that forced several turnovers. Larry Zimmerman tallied five of his nine points in the outburst, while Pine Grove shot 8-of-14 from the foul line to pull away.
Read the fully story here >>.
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From the Times-News:
Blue Mountain and Jim Thorpe both started slow offensively last night, but in the end, it was the Eagles taking advantage of their inside presence and outscoring the Olympians 23-9 in the fourth quarter for a 61-47 Schuylkill League Division I win.
It took about two minutes for a basket to fall, but things started to click for the Olympians, as they turned a 5-5 tie into a 13-5 lead off an 8-0 run as J.T. Otto scored five. The Olympians held a 14-7 lead after one period. Otto finished with eight points, while the Eagles’ Tyler Hartranft hit a three to keep the visitors close.
In the second period, Blue Mountain began chipping away and eventually tied the game up 22-22 at the intermission. Matt LaScala came alive for eight of his game-high 20 points for the Eagles in the period, while Jim Thorpe’s Dean DiBonifazio had four points in the quarter.
Read full story here >>.
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From the Times-News:
It’ll be Jim Thorpe and Northern Lehigh in the championship of the 29th Annual Slatington Rotary Boys Basketball Tournament once again.
The Olympians used two big quarters to hand Palmerton a 74-66 setback in the first semifinal and the Bulldogs rolled to an easy 69-50 triumph over the Indians in the nightcap.
The two will battle for the title at 8 p.m. after Palmerton and Lehighton meet in the 6:30 consolation Dec. 28, 2010. JTS note: Jim Thorpe lost the championship game. Palmerton beat Lehighton.
Jim Thorpe-Palmerton
The Olympians scored 22 points in the first and third quarters and kept the Blue Bombers from getting any closer than three points after jumping out to a 13-4 lead.
Dean DeBonifazio scored nine of his game-high 24 points in the first quarter and Darius Clark added eight of his 13 lifting Jim Thorpe out to a 22-15 advantage.
Tyler Svetik had six in the first period for the Bombers and Cody Geist added four.
Jim Thorpe head coach Brian Carroll said afterwards his game plan was to play a triangle-and-two on Palmerton’s deadly outside shooters Brett Snyder and Ben Andrews.
“That was the bottom line,” Carroll said. “To shut those two guys down. After seeing them on film and reading about them they’ve been lights out. You want someone else to do some damage. I thought we did a pretty good job overall.”
Andrews did manage to hit double figures with 10 points and a pair of treys, while Snyder was held to two points.
It was in the second quarter when Andrews hit his treys and Geist and Jourdan Reinhart added four apiece to cut the Olympians lead to 36-33 at the half.
Jim Thorpe outscored the Bombers 9-2 to start the third quarter and still held on to a 58-51 edge, but Geist fired in 10 of his 19 points to keep Palmerton within striking distance.
In the final stanza, DiBonifazio scored 10 more and the Olympians were able to make enough free throws to counter a 10-point quarter by Svetik.
“The guys were active tonight,” said Carroll. “Darius (Clark) and JT (Otto) did a good job inside which we haven’t been doing in our earlier games since we’ve been undersized all year. they know they have to stay out of foul trouble and be active on the glass, keep the ball alive and get it to our guards and P.J. (Johnson) in the open floor.”
The Olympians got 19 from Otto to back of DiBonifazio, 13 from Clark and 10 from Dave Ciavarella. Svetik finished with 23 on the night for the Bombers to join Geist and Andrews in double figures.
“We had open shots, we had layups and you have to make those,” said Palmerton head coach Mike Snyder. “But their athleticism was a big factor. This was definitely one of our worst games. We were flat-footed and you can’t be that against a team like this.
“They took it to us in all aspects. We got outplayed, I got out-coached. It was a whole miserable effort tonight. We hope to make this a learning experience that this doesn’t happen again.”
JIM THORPE
DiBonifazio 10-3-3-24, Prontnicki 0-0-0-0, Moranta 0-1-4-1, Ciavarella 4-2-2-10, Otto 7-3-3-19, Brown 0-0-0-0, Clark 4-3-4-13, Johnson 3-1-7-7. TOTALS: 28-13-23-74.
PALMERTON
Andrews 4-0-0-10, Svetik 10-0-0-23, Snyder 1-0-0-2, Leaver 2-0-0-4, Saylor 0-0-0-0, Geist 8-3-4-19, Reinhart 3-2-4-8. TOTALS: 28-5-8-66.
Jim Thorpe 22 14 22 16 – 74
Palmerton 15 18 18 15 – 66
Three-pointers; JT – Otto 2, Clark 2, DiBonifazio 1; Palmerton – Svetik 3, Andrews 2.
