Tamaqua coach Joe Berezwick still calls his Lady Raiders a "work in progress," but last night's convincing 47-23 win over Panther Valley proved his team made progress with hard work at both ends of the court to earn their first win of the season.

"We had a good game plan against their 3-2 zone and that was to spread the floor and be aggressive to the basket," said Berezwick.Tamaqua started strong and finished strong with only a brief lapse in between. Bailey Hartung drained a three with just 20 seconds into the game beginning a 6-0 run with scoring added by Kirstin Jones and Vanessa Solt. Meanwhile, the Raider "D" full court man to man pressure forced numerous early turnovers from the Lady Panthers. Jones' s put back at 5:34 increased Tamaqua's lead to 10-3, but Panther Valley scored the next five points with baskets from Megan Marouchac and Christina Dacey, whose free throw near the period's end brought the Panthers to within two.In the second period, with 5:32 to go, PV's Taylor Vance's two free throws gave the Panthers (2-2) their only lead of the game at 12-10.The Raiders then went on a 15-1 tear to take a commanding lead. Breaking PV's half court pressure, long passes for driving layups by Jones and Wittig, along with Kaelyn Boran - Smith's baseline trey followed by another side jumper had the Panthers reeling."With Jones going strong to the basket, and then we put Boran - Smith in to go small and uptempo, we gained a nice separation," said Berezwick. The victory was bittersweet for Tamaqua as Boran -Smith fell to the court with four minutes to go in the third period with what appeared to be a knee injury."That's just a shame," said Berezwick. "Kaelyn's been coming on for us and giving us strong play off the bench."Panthers' coach Brad Hurley called timeouts to try to change the momentum, but to no avail as his team was held to no field goals and just five free throws going into the break."We struggle against defensive pressure," said Hurley. "And recently we have had a bad habit of clawing our way back into a game only to have a total breakdown, just like we did tonight."Tamaqua's Hartung began the third period just like she did the first by hitting a three from the top of the key to give her team a 17 point lead. The rest of the period was all Raiders as their defense allowed only five total points."We talked about coming out in the second half and extending our lead quickly and we did," said Berezwick. "I think that deflated them a bit. I think we are a little deeper than PV too so we were able to play keep away and control the tempo the rest of the way."Vanessa Solt's put back completed a 6-0 short run for the Raiders with under two minutes to go, putting a stamp on Tamaqua's first win against four losses."We didn't set screens and we didn't take care of the ball," said Hurley. "Tamaqua played great, but for us it's not about talent. We have to play fundamentally sound and execute our plays. Tonight we didn't do either. We will work harder to become more consistent.""We established a rhythm on offense and our defense played tremendously, especially Brianna Wittig who shut down Marouchac, their best outside shooter," said Berezwick.Jones led the Raiders with 15 points. Only three Panthers marked the score sheet, led by Christina Dacey who finished the game with 11 points.Tamaqua also won the JV game by a 36-12 score.TAMAQUAHartung 4-0-0-11, Jones 6-3-4-15, Wittig 3-0-0-6, Baddick 0-0-0-0, Solt 4-2-6-10, Ligenza 0-0-0-0, Pratka 0-0-0-0, Boran-Smith 2-0-0-5, McVicker 0-0-0-0, Shamonsky 0-0-0-0, Hromyak 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 19-5-10-47.PANTHER VALLEYMarouchac 1-1-2-3, Vance 3-3-4-9, Corby 0-0-0-0, Smith 0-0-0-0, Dacey 3-5-7-11, M. Markovich 0-0-0-0, C. Markovich 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 7-9-13-23.Tamaqua 10 17 12 8 - 47Panther Vy. 8 5 5 5 - 23Three pointers: Tamaqua - Hartung 3, Boran- Smith-1. Panther Valley - none.