NEW HOPE - A clash of two styles.

Jim Thorpe likes to run in transition, and New Hope-Solebury tends to slow it down.Something had to give during a District 11 playoff meeting between the Olympians and Tigers.New Hope jumped out to an early first quarter lead, which kept the Tigers right in their comfort zone during a 42-33 victory over Jim Thorpe on Friday at New Hope-Solebury High School."We turned it over too much and we got ourselves in a hole early in the game," said Jim Thorpe head coach Rob Kovac. "We got down eight or nine, which is like being down 20 against a team that can control tempo like that. We won the second half, but only by one point. Again, I wish we could get that first quarter back."The Lions had a 14-8 lead after the first frame, and not many teams are as efficient in holding the ball as New Hope is, which didn't bode well for the Olympians. The catalyst of the Tigers' style is point guard Sarah Wilson, who chipped in 10 points and orchestrated the slow-paced scheme to near perfection."Everyone says 'we love your Division 1 player', and I say 'I'm glad you like Sarah so much'," explained New Hope head coach Andy Krasna with a smile of Wilson, who isn't New Hope's Division 1 commit. I really think she is that good and college coaches will start to figure it out. I think she's so underrated and one of the best in the state. She is a real, true point guard that sees the floor very well."The Olympians tried to raise the pace of play with lengthy trapping defense. While their pressure would have given many team fits, the Lions and Wilson didn't have too much trouble with it for most of the game, having the right players in the right places during every trip up the court."We always say that we put five point guards, or point-forwards, or point-centers out there," said the Lions' coach. "Everyone out there can handle pressure and we've worked very hard on that during the offseason. It's very hard to speed us up. We don't have a weak link when we put players on the floor, and we don't turn the ball over. We probably had more than usual tonight, but I think the crowd and the level of play had something to do with that. Also, Jim Thorpe is a big athletic team and we don't see a lot of that."The Olympians did seem to kick it up a notch defensively in the second half, forcing 10 New Hope turnovers. But they had a big problem on the other end - a 6-2 problem to be exact, as Division 1 commit Alana Davidson stuffed numerous Thorpe attempts around the rim, and altered even more."At the end of the day, defensively, they were putting so much pressure on Kayley (Kovac) on the perimeter," said Kovac. "But they have a 6-2 kid inside who blocked so many shots, and I can't tell you how many different shots she changed during the course of the night. We're slashers and our goal is to try and get her (Davidson) out of the game. We really could have done some damage, but we couldn't get that foul on her we needed. I thought we go to the basket consistently, but we just couldn't finish and she was a difference maker."Thorpe cut the New Hope lead to five in the final period. But the Lions killed a ton of clock and shot 14 foul shots during the frame, which helped them fend off the Olympians' surge."I was most pleased with our composure in the fourth quarter," explained the New Hope coach. "They (Jim Thorpe) started pressing us, but we maintained our composure and got to the free throw line. We still maintained our defensive pressure on the other end. I'm really proud of them."COACH ROB'S REPORT CARD ... Kovac loved the way his team clawed back all night, but noted that it wasn't a complete game for his squad. "Effort was an 'A", but execution was probably a 'D" unfortunately. But, there was no quit in us tonight. There were multiple times in the game where we could have checked out and rolled over, but we didn't and we battled."NOT A TYPO ... New Hope's Alana Davidson will be playing basketball next season at Davidson College. She scored her 1,000th career point earlier this month.WHO ARE YOU? ... New Hope is one of three District 1 teams as part of a District 11 subregional tournament in class 3A girls.JIM THORPERichards 1-0-0-3, P. Kovac 1-2-2-5, Condly 0-0-0-0, Ohl 3-0-0-6, Naranjo 1-1-1-3, K. Kovac 5-6-9-16, Lignore 0-0-0-0, Gabel 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 11-9-12-33NEW HOPESherman 0-0-0-0, Hyland 4-3-7-11, Davidson 4-4-6-12, Wilson 3-4-4-10, DeVito 0-3-4-3, Costello 3-0-2-6, Palan 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 14-14-23-42Jim Thorpe 6 6 4 17 - 33New Hope 14 8 4 16 - 42Three-pointers: JT - P. Kovac 1, Richards 1; NH - none.