It would be an understatement to say that the Tamaqua boys' basketball team has less than fond memories of its last trip to Lehighton.

On that night last February, the Blue Raiders suffered an 85-59 loss in the first round of the District 11 Class AAA playoffs, ending what had been a most promising season.After handing Lehighton its first loss in overtime earlier this year, Tamaqua earned a season sweep and exorcised its demons from last year by claiming a 68-55 Schuylkill League Division I victory."We knew it was going to be a tough place to play, and we knew it was a big game," said Tamaqua head coach Caszy Kosciolek. "We had bad vibes from coming here last year when they really put a whopping on us and eliminated us from the playoffs.Unlike their last meeting in December, when the Blue Raiders (15-2, 9-1) trailed heading into the fourth quarter, they maintained a lead, albeit slim at times, throughout the entirety of the game."Tonight, our kids came out ready to play from the start and it showed," said Kosciolek. "We got an early lead and I thought we played pretty good defense."Tamaqua opened up a 12-3 lead late in the first quarter before Lehighton (11-6, 6-5) started to claw its way back into the game.The Indians cut the deficit to two points at 14-12 on one of Tom Ruzicka's three three-pointers to start the second quarter.Lehighton outscored Tamaqua 17-14 in the second frame to cut it to 29-26 at halftime.But the Blue Raiders went on a 16-7 run to start the third quarter to open their largest advantage of the contest at 45-33, a surge that the Indians were never able to recover from."I thought the key to the game was the start of the third quarter," Kosciolek noted. "We came out and took that double-digit lead and never really relinquished it from that point."I really like our mental toughness. We may not do things well all the time, but what I really like is our effort and how hard we play."After getting to within a few points of completing the comeback, Lehighton was outscored 39-29 over the final 16 minutes."Right now, we're just not playing defense," said Lehighton head coach Rich Oertner. "The second half (tonight) and every game has been the same way - the first half we play defense and the second half we just stop playing defense."You have to play the whole game, and we just haven't been able to do that."The Indians had a hard time scheming for the Blue Raiders various scoring threats.Tamaqua's Russell Blaker led all players with 21 points, 13 in the first half. Nate MacDonald added 17 points, Bo Rottet 14 and Brett Kosciolek 10 in what proved to be a well-rounded effort."Today, they just went on Brett and doubled him when he went in the paint," Blaker said of Lehighton's strategy. "That would mean either I would be open, or Nate (MacDonald) would be open…it was easy to spread the ball around."The ball movement was exactly what Caszy Kosciolek was looking for."I couldn't have been happier with our offensive execution and our unselfishness," he said. "Everybody on our team made someone better. The mark of a good team is being able to make others around you better, and we did that."Tanner Zwetolitz led the Indians with 12 points, all of which came in the second half, while Tyler Crum and Jordan Knappenberger scored nine apiece.But it's not the offense that Oertner's worried about, especially with the postseason looming"It's been the same problem all year - we lost to them last time scoring 74 points and we lost to Blue Mountain scoring 86," he said. "And that tells you something about our defense."And that's been the issue all year against good teams, is playing defense."TAMAQUAShilko 1-0-0-2, Blaker 8-0-0-21, Miller 1-0-0-2, Rottet 7-0-2-14, McDonald 8-1-2-17, Murphy 0-0-0-0, Skripko 0-1-4-1, Kosciolek 5-0-0-10, Scott 0-0-0-0, Berezwick 0-0-0-0, Zuber 0-1-3-1. TOTALS: 30-3-12-68.LEHIGHTONRuzicka 3-0-0-9, Crum 3-1-2-9, Zwetolitz 4-0-0-12, Ortiz 1-0-0-3, Williams 0-0-0-0, Buchinsky 0-0-1-0, Chambers 2-4-8-8, Kanppenberger 2-4-6-9, Green 2-0-0-5. TOTALS: 17-9-17-55.Lehighton 9 17 14 15 - 55Tamaqua 14 15 20 19 - 68Three-pointers: T - Blaker 5; L - Zwetolitz 4, Ruzicka 3, Crum 2, Ortiz 1, Knappenberger 1, Green 1.