Good teams find ways to win.

Pottsville explored and utilized different avenues to put points on the board despite a competitive game from Jim Thorpe on Friday.The Lady Tides' well-rounded effort helped earn a Schuylkill League road victory over the Lady Olympians, 55-40."We're more of an outside shooting team," explained Pottsville head coach Curt Ziegmont. "Maybe it's a credit to their (Jim Thorpe's) defense that they weren't giving us outside shots. We had a big third quarter and we tried to milk the clock the rest of the way and get out of here."The Lady Tide went on a 14-2 run during their big third frame and held Jim Thorpe to just a pair of field goals during the period."We were sharing the ball a little more and making some fundamental passes," said Ziegmont of his team's second-half performance. "We attacked the gaps of the zone a little more with diagonal passes. I thought we did a really good job of that in the third quarter."The Tide attacked the rack when their shots weren't falling in the first half. Pottsville made just one field goal in the second quarter, but got to the foul line ten times. Krysta Shenck made it to the stripe 14 times and tallied eight of her ten points there."She's been solid for us all season long," said the Pottsville coach. "She's a force inside, positions herself very well for rebounding, and is close to averaging a double-double for us every night."Kovac's crew trailed by just six points at the break. The Lady Olympians' 1-3-1 defense was giving Pottsville all it could handle in the first two periods."Once we settled down we played pretty well defensively," JT head coach Rob Kovac. "I thought we did some good things, but we had a couple of bad minutes. We also had some good shots in the first half, unfortunately they just didn't fall."Jim Thorpe had a brutal stretch of games recently, playing most of the Schuylkill League's finest competition. Despite losing four of five during the sequence, Kovac noted that his team has improved, the culture is positive, and the team is ready to roll in District playoffs.He said, "I know our kids are going to play hard no matter who we get in Districts. I'm certainly not saying we're going to win, but there's a good vibe in our locker room and that's huge. Our kids know that we're getting better and it's fun and exciting."GOTTA' STAY FOCUSED... Ziegmont preached to his team that it couldn't look past Friday's game with JT, despite knowing the potential SL tiebreaker game with Blue Mountain was on deck."It's one of the toughest things to do for high school kids," said Ziegmont. "It's difficult for them to not overlook things. I think I got them back to ground zero at the half, which contributed to our third quarter."BRIDGING THE GAP... In the first meeting between Pottsville and JT, the Olympians lost by 27."Last Friday I asked the kids, 'are we going to get better?' I went into the locker room tonight and it was apparent I didn't have to ask. We've closed the gap from the first time that we've played Pottsville."POTTSVILLESherakas 0-0-0-0, Coyle 0-0-0-0, Brunhauser 3-2-2-8, Plachko 2-0-0-6, Tarconish 2-0-0-4, Cresswell 4-2-2-14, Eckert 0-0-0-0, Comfort 1-2-3-4, Kondrack 4-1-3-9, Schenk 1-8-14-10. TOTALS: 17-15-24-55.JIM THORPERichards 1-0-0-2, P.Kovac 1-2-4-2, Condly 1-0-0-2, Ohl 5-0-1-10, K.Kovac 7-3-4-17, Cressman 0-0-0-0, Waselus 2-0-0-4, Lignore 0-1-4-1. TOTALS: 17-6-13-40.Pottsville 18 9 18 10 - 55Jim Thorpe 12 9 5 14 - 40Three-pointers: Pottsville - Cresswell 4, Plachko 2; Jim Thorpe - none.