After last night's 64-37 victory by Jim Thorpe over the Tamaqua Lady Raiders, both coaches described their teams as "a work in progress."

Obviously JT coach Rob Kovac and Tamaqua coach Joe Berezwick used this phrase from different perspectives after considering several factors that affected the one -sided outcome."We need to learn how to play with a lead better than we did tonight," said Kovac. "We scored in spurts and we were standing around too much in our half court game.""We are simply trying to find our way," said Raiders' coach Berezwick. "Our post players look uncomfortable and right now are a year or two away from getting their game down."After Tamaqua's Emily Prada tied the game at a bucket apiece, Jim Thorpe, utilizing a pressure defense and an effective half court trap, went on a eight point run and never looked back. Thirteen first quarter Raider turnovers led to several transition lay ups for the Olympians. Freshman Kayley Kovac, whose game high 28 points led all scorers, finished the quarter with a driving lay up off a steal with five seconds remaining.In the second quarter, Thorpe, (3-1), built its lead to 22-4 with a ten - point run. Kovac continued to be aggressive to the hoop to tally ten points. Tamaqua's Bailey Hartung and Brianna Witting each hit three point shots to try to keep their team within a reasonable margin. Alexys Narranjo's two baskets near the end of the quarter, however, increased the Olympian's lead to 17 at the break.Coach Kovac emphasized the uptempo transition game as the key to his young team' success."The uglier the game is the better it is for us," he said. "Most of our players are young so we rely on our athleticism to get the ball and go. We can go up and down the court, but when we have to play the half court game, we need to get much better."The third quarter saw more of Kaylee Kovac taking over the game as she scored on layups, running one handers and put backs. Once again, Hartung, Tamaqua high scorer with 11 points, and Witting hit long threes, with Witting's coming at the 5:30 mark to get the Raiders to within14 points."Jim Thorpe has a real nice team," said Berezwick. "Our scoring came from the outside wit hour more experienced players, but we have no inside game at the moment to give us some balance."In the final quarter, the Raiders, (0-3), hit four three pointers, one by senior, Vanessa Solt and two by Kaelyn Boran - Smith. With under three minutes to go, JT senior, Brittany Doughty returned the favor with two treys of her own."We were able to get a lot of our kids involved in our offense tonight," said Kovac. "Gabby Binder, Rebecca Cressman, and Devon Lignore all contributed to our efforts."Despite his teams double-digit defeat, Raider coach Berezwick saw a silver lining."In our first few games we were only scoring in the teens. Tonight we put up 37 so we have been able to make the game a little longer for us than we did before."Though Kovac had the big scoring night, the Olympians showed their depth as seven other players added their names to JT's scoring totals.TAMAQUAHartung 4-0-0-11, Jones 2-4-1-2- 5, Wittig 2-0-0-6, Baddick 0-0-0-0, Solt 1-0-0-3, Ligenza 1-0-0-2, Pratka 1-0-0-2, Borin- Smith 2-0-0-6, McVicker 0-0-0-0, Shamonsky 1-0-0-2, Hromyak 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 14-1-2-37.JIM THORPEDoughty 2-0-0-6, P. Kovac 2-0-2-4, Condlly 0-0-0-0, Ohl 0-0-0-0, Naranjo 4-0-1-8, Binder 3-0-0-6, K. Kovac 12-4-8-28, Cressman 3-0-0-6, Waselus 0-0-0-0, Bush 0-0-0-0, Lignore 0-5-6-5, Gabel 0-1-2-1, Fasolino 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 26-9-19-64.Tamaqua 4 9 10 14 - 37Jim Thorpe 12 18 14 20 - 64Three-pointers: Tamaqua - Hartung 3, Wittig 2, Boran-Smith 2; Jim Thorpe - Doughty 2.