Northern Lehigh's back court may lack the experience and know-how of varsity level basketball.

However, their remedy seems to work, as a mixture of hustle, fundamentals, and sticking to the game plan have made a positive impact on the Bulldogs' early season outcomes.Limited turnovers and the spark plug offense of sophomore Brandon Hess, who finished with a game-high 27 points, led the Slatington Rotary Christmas Tournament hosts to a 64-59 first round win over Jim Thorpe."I thought our intensity and us switching up our defense throughout really helped us get the win tonight," Northern Lehigh head coach Jeff Miller said. "We tried to slow them down or confuse them and I think it worked. Their guards are really tough, so we tried to make every shot that (Chris) Micciche and (Brendan) Carroll took, a tough shot."Down the stretch, Thorpe showed their resilience with a fight to the end, but the Bulldogs proved steadfast at the free throw line, converting on 8-of-10 in the final two minutes to preserve the victory.Gio Colon's free throws with 2:51 left on the clock put the winners up 56-48, but Aaron Joyce nailed a triple off a Micciche feed and followed that with a steal at mid-court and an ensuing lay-up to make it 56-53 a minute later.Three charity tosses by the 'Dawgs pushed their lead to six with under a minute, before consecutive lay-ups by Micciche and Joyce cut it to two (59-57) with :38 left.But that was as close as Thorpe would get, as senior Joe Egan iced it with five straight free throws."They made plays tonight, and we didn't," Jim Thorpe head coach Jason McElmoyle said. "Give them credit. They hit shots, we didn't. They did the fundamentals well and we let them dictate what they wanted to do."Hess led the way for the Bulldogs, as his gutty performance included four triples, while Egan followed with 21 points and nine rebounds."Even though our back court is young, we were scrappy enough, gutty enough and resilient enough tonight," Miller added. "We're just really glad to get the win."With the victory, Northern Lehigh (3-4) moves on to play Lehighton in the championship tilt this evening at 8 p.m.Jim Thorpe and Palmerton will open up play in the consolation contest at 6:30."We just have to play more together as a team," McElmoyle said. "I thought our help side defense wasn't there tonight, I don't think we communicated very well, we didn't make the extra pass and we dribbled into traffic. I take the responsibility for it, but we just have to go back to the basics."STOPPING THE SLIDE ... Jim Thorpe, which started the season strong, has recently hit a string of three straight losses.GLASS CLEANER ... Jim Thorpe's senior big man, Matt Elmore, was saddled with some early foul trouble, picking up his second with 3:10 left in the first frame. Despite his limited play, he finished the game with 12 points and 11 rebounds.ANYONE'S GAME ... Early on, the game seemed intense, as six lead changes and two ties kept the fans intent. However, Egan's three midway through the second session proved to give the Bulldogs the lead for good.JIM THORPECarroll 3-0-0-9, Samuels 1-0-0-2, Elmore 5-2-2-12, Micciche 7-2-2-17, Burkhart 0-0-0-0, Searfoss 0-0-0-0, Joyce 3-0-0-7, Marykwas 0-0-0-0, Na. Rosahac 0-0-0-0, Ni. Rosahac 0-0-0-0, Fikentscher 6-0-2-12. TOTALS: 25-4-6-59.NORTHERN LEHIGHKemery 3-1-3-7, Egan 6-8-11-21, Seiler 0-0-0-0, Shoff 0-0-0-0, Hess 9-5-5-27, Colon 3-3-4-9. TOTALS: 21-17-23-64.Jim Thorpe 12 12 14 21 - 59Northern Lehigh 13 15 14 22 - 64Three pointers: Jim Thorpe - Carroll 3, Micciche 1, Joyce 1; Northern Lehigh - Hess 4, Egan 1.