ALLENTOWN - Kayley Kovac and the rest of the Jim Thorpe seniors wanted to reach Sunday of SportsFest's A-Town Throwdown basketball tournament. After falling short of that feat in prior summers, that group realized time was running out.

Not only did the Olympians earn one of the 16 spots in Sunday's single-elimination tournament, it did one better by winning a game on the final day of the event. After going 2-1 in pool play and defeating Nazareth (38-36) early Sunday morning, Northampton ended the Olympians' run a couple hours later with a 56-38 victory.Jim Thorpe was one of three TIMES NEWS area girls teams to advance to Sunday. Northwestern won all three of its games in pool play and disposed of Dieruff (43-14) to advance to the quarterfinals. Lehighton went 3-0 in pool play and lost early on Sunday morning."There are five seniors, and we've played in SportsFest for three years now," Kovac said. "The first two years we were put in the pool of death. We saw amazing teams, and with such a small school that we are, we really struggled…This was our last go-around, and we really wanted to make it to Sunday."Saturday's tilt with Northern Lehigh, a team Jim Thorpe is familiar with, would decide the Olympians' fate for Sunday. The winner would join Parkland as the two representatives from its pool.The outcome wasn't even close. Jim Thorpe scored the first seven points, led by 12 at halftime, and defeated the Bulldogs with a dominant showing. Kovac paced all scorers with a game-high 20 points."We've seen Northern Lehigh before; we played them in the regular season last season," Kovac said. "So we knew their personnel a little bit. They gave Parkland a great game this morning. We knew we had to play fast and get out in transition."Payton Kovac, Jackie Conley, Devon Lignore and Sarah Gabel were the other seniors that cracked the coveted Sunday stage for the first times in their careers.While Jim Thorpe had not been a participant on Sunday of recent SportsFest tournaments, Northwestern has been a regular qualifier. The Tigers won all three of their games in pool play - beating Liberty (32-19), Sankofa (48-25) and Central Dauphin East (33-25) - to reach Sunday once again.Once there, Northwestern won its first game against Dieruff before Dunmore used a 46-36 victory to end the Tigers' run.For head coach Chris Deutsch, it was a successful outing for a team that returns all five starters from last year."Today, I thought we played really well," Deutsch said. "Our best win of the day was against Central Dauphin East; that is a state playoff team from last year, and they are very physical and aggressive."I like they way we moved the ball offensively. Defensively, we were really good to only allow them 25 points."One of those returning senior starters is Abby Chisdak, who played a key role in Northwestern winning four of its five games."I think Thursday we were just tired, and everybody was coming off different sports," said Chisdak, who also plays soccer in the summer. "That was like our wakeup call game. And today [Saturday] we really bonded as a team, played well and shared the ball."Lehighton's three wins in pool play came against Freedom, Delaware Valley and Palmerton. Northampton, who played in the championship game, ended the Indians' run on Sunday morning. Palmerton went 0-3 in pool play.On the boys' side, Palmerton and Northwestern went 1-2 in pool play and came up short on advancing to Sunday. Lehighton went 0-3 over the course of the tournament, falling to Dobbins, Stroudsburg and Freedom.After losing its first game to Bensalem, 67-40, Palmerton righted the ship in Saturday's first of two games. The Blue Bombers used a late run against Northeast to improve to 1-1 and keep hopes of a Sunday berth somewhat alive."We're in the process of rebuilding a program that has been losing for a decade and a half," head coach Ken Termini said. "As much as we would like that to happen quickly, it doesn't. We did have a tough draw. We did win our second game. We scored 10 of the last 11 points and won by one point. That was big for us."Palmerton then came up short against Central Catholic an hour later, one of the final eight teams standing on Sunday."At times we do this very well, but we are still learning consistency and communication," Termini said. "A tournament like this gives us an opportunity to do it. Because if we make a mistake in the 2 p.m. game, we come back two hours later and play right away and can fix it."Northwestern defeated Susquehanna by double digits to open the tournament, but came up short against Morris Hills and Parkland.UNLUCKY DRAWS? ... Three of the seven area teams eliminated from the tournament were ousted by teams that eventually played in the championship game. The Northampton girls, who lost to Becahi in the championship, eliminated both Lehighton and Jim Thorpe. Parkland ended Northwestern's run on the boys' side.THREES ARE WILD ... Northwestern's Sam Yadush, an incoming junior, won the tournament's three-point shootout for the third straight year.