BRODHEADSVILLE - Momentum.

It's great to have, but hard to keep.Down by eight points midway through the fourth quarter of Friday's District 11 Class 4A quarterfinal game, Tamaqua was fortunate to find some against Saucon Valley.The Blue Raiders rode a wave of energy to rally and force a tie against the Panthers.But in the blink of an eye, that momentum disappeared.A key putback by Cole Gilotti and six free throws from Josh Snead allowed Saucon to close on an 8-0 run and gain a 59-51 victory."In the third quarter, we had only two points over a five, six-minute span and then we finally got it going," said Blue Raider head coach Jim Barron. "(Zeke) Wassell hit a couple jumpers for us, and he and (Thad) Zuber came to life. We got right back into it and made a run."Wassell hit a three to tie it, and then we got them to take the shot we wanted. It was 22 feet out and he missed it, but we failed to get a body on them. Offensive rebounds really hurt us in the fourth quarter."With the score 47-39, Tamaqua started its comeback. Josh Inama hit a pair of free throws, and Wassell drained a three-pointer. Following a Brad Yeahl putback, the Raiders' Lucas Gregoire scored to cut the deficit to three points again.Barron's club forced a turnover and Wassell came down and nailed another three to knot the score at 49-49 with 2:22 left to play."We had a solid third quarter but they staged a great comeback," said Saucon mentor Matt Brown. "They hit big shots and got back in it. We just made enough plays down the stretch."With Tamaqua seemingly holding the momentum, the Panthers forced up a shot from the perimeter. The shot was off, but Gilotti was in the right place at the right time. He grabbed the loose ball and put it back up to allow his squad to regain the lead. The Raiders never scored again."They had three offensive rebounds (in the fourth quarter) and they converted on all of them," said Barron. "Instead of us controlling the ball and having a chance to take the lead there, we gave up an offensive rebound and we were down again."Tamaqua wasn't down early. In fact, it looked like the Blue Raiders were going to run away from their opponent in the opening frame.Hitting on nine of their first 13 shots, they jumped out to a 23-14 advantage. Josh Inama accounted for 10 of those points, while Zuber added eight."Josh really set the pace right at the beginning, coming out and knocking down a couple jumpers for us," said Barron. "It got everybody going.""We ended up playing four different defenses in the first quarter," said Brown. "We played 2-3, 3-2, 1-3-1 and man and they scored 23 against us ... We just said we have to turn things up. We just went man the rest of the game and tried to pressure a little more."Saucon's physical play proved effective, as the Panthers limited Tamaqua to just 13 points combined in the middle frames and took control. That is, until momentum swung in both directions for the Raiders.SHORT-HANDED ... Saucon Valley (14-10) won despite playing without their top scorer. Cam Allen leads the Panthers with a 17.6 points per game average, but missed the contest with an ankle injury.SCORERS ... Zuber paced the Blue Raiders with 17 points, while Inama finished with 16. For Saucon, Snead had a game-high 20 points.FIRST-QUARTER FRENZY ... Tamaqua made more field goals (9) in the opening frame than they did in the last three (8).SEASON ENDER ... The Blue Raiders were 6-16 a year ago, and ended 13-10. "I'm very pleased with how far we've come," said Barron. "We took the next step this season and went to districts. We were right in this game, and were one step from states. Hopefully next year we can take the next step."TAMAQUABonetsky 0-0-0-0, Stianche 0-0-0-0, Wassell 3-0-0-9, Zuber 6-2-2-17, Knoblauch 0-1-2-1, Scott 0-0-0-0, Rother 0-0-0-0, Inama 5-6-6-16, G. Gregoire 1-0-0-2, L. Gregoire 2-2-3-6. TOTALS: 17-11-13-51.SAUCON VALLEYSmith 6-1-1-15, Gilotti 2-1-2-6, Snead 5-8-8-20, Nichols 4-0-0-8, Simpson 0-0-0-0, O'Donnell 0-0-0-0, Zrinski 1-1-2-3, Yeahl 3-0-0-7. TOTALS: 21-11-13-59.Tamaqua 23 5 8 15 - 51Saucon Vy. 17 13 9 20 - 59Three-pointers: Tamaqua - Zuber 3, Wassell 3; Saucon Vy. - Smith 2, Snead 2, Gilotti 1, Yeahl 1.