Tamaqua head coach Caszy Kosciolek was hoping for a win to take some momentum into the post-season playoffs.

Palmerton head coach Leigh Keenan was hoping for a signature win to carry into what he hoped would be a positive off-season.In what turned out to be a physical contest with 47 fouls called and 60 free throws attempted, it was the Blue Bombers (3-19) who came away with a surprising 66-54 non-league boys basketball win ending the regular season.The Bombers, who never trailed in the contest, took control early jumping out to a 8-0 lead and with Spencer Hay and Mark Quinn hitting for six points apiece widened it to 18-7 at the end of the first quarter. Logan Lesher took over in the second quarter with six points as the Bombers had built up a 34-15 lead with seconds remaining in the first half. Only a foul that sent Tamaqua's Bo Rottet to the line for three perfect free throws cut it to 34-18 at the break."Palmerton played well," said Kosciolek afterwards. "Their full-court pressure affected us. If we would have played with the sense of urgency we did in the second half, it obviously would have been a lot better performance from us. It was difficult and disappointing."Give all the credit to them. They had two wins and came in here and really took it at us and we didn't respond well to that."All Keenan was hoping for was that his team would play a full four quarters this time and not have a meltdown.Brett Kosciolek, who was held to one point in the first half, answered for 10 Tamaqua points in the the third quarter and Rottet scored the team's other seven. The Raiders actually pulled within three (34-31) as they went on a 13-0 run to start the second half, but the Bombers went on a 7-0 run and widened it to 10 as Hay scored five and Lesher drained a three."In games like this, you spend so much energy to get to that point and then you kind of hit the wall and I think that's what happened to us and they just did a great job in maintaining the lead."The Raiders (13-9) had to put the Bombers on the foul line in the fourth quarter and they responded making 15-of-22 to keep the Schuylkill League foes from any comeback."This is it," said Keenan. "We play our best ball when we play a little nutty. When we don't play half court offense or half court defense, when we play full court engaged, really into it, people forget, they don't overthink too much. When they just play basketball, they look better."We played all four quarters this game. Most of the time, we play three very well and don't play one very well. This game we put all four quarters together and we shut down their big guy (Brett Kosciolek) in the first half. He was very successful in the third quarter and he's a very good player. They're very well coached and had some success. But this was just a passionate win. Logan scoring 18, bringing our guys together taking a leadership role; Mark really became physical; Spencer really getting out in the open court. I think everybody wanted to win for the other guy on the team and when we do that we look much better."Backing up Lesher's was Hay and Quinn with 14 apiece. Rottett had a game-high 22 for the Raiders and Kosciolek added 14.Palmerton made it a sweep with a 60-58 win in the JV game as Mike Stasko had 17 and Zach Buck 11. Nate MacDonald had 20 and Austin Zwolenik 10 for Tamaqua.TAMAQUABlaker 2-2-4-7, Miller 0-0-0-0, Rottet 6-7-9-22, Frantz 0-0-0-0, Tr. Skripko 1-1-2-3, MacDonald 1-0-2-2, Marcin 0-2-4-2 Ty. Skripko 2-0-0-4, Kosciolek 6-1-4-14, Van Buskirk 0-0-0-0, Hartung 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 18-13-25-54.PALMERTONHay 6-2-7-14, Achtermann 0-3-4-3, Lesher 4-8-11-18, Weber 2-0-2-5, Frey 1-2-3-5, Quinn 5-4-4-14, Rodrigues 0-0-0-0, Buck 0-0-0-0, Stasko 2-3-4-7. TOTALS: 20-22-35-66.Tamaqua 7 11 17 19 - 54Palmerton 18 16 8 24 - 66Three-pointers: Tamaqua - Blaker 1, Kosciolek 1, Rottet 3; Palmerton - Weber 1, Frey 1, Lesher 2.