Jim Barron could feel the squeeze his Tamaqua boys' basketball team was going through Tuesday against state-ranked Shenandoah Valley in the opening four-plus minutes of this non-league encounter.

Somehow, Barron had to get his team's attention. Using a timeout, Barron never talked strategy, and instead gave his team a 101-lesson on urgency, belting out "… you better start playing or we're about to get blown out of the gym, and embarrassed."Those words didn't fall on deaf ears, as the Blue Raiders responded for the remainder of the contest. It wasn't quite enough, though, to hang with the speedy Blue Devils, falling 48-42.What killed the Raiders early on were turnovers. Tamaqua couldn't shoot straight, and you can attribute that to the Devils man-up defense. The Raiders went 0-for-4 on its field goal tries and fell behind 9-0 before Brayden Knoblauch sank two foul shots to end the drought.The only saving grace for Tamaqua was its ability to check off all-state guard Joel Santana. Tamaqua used many players to box Santana, who was held to 18 points, a season-low."We didn't want (Santana) to beat us," said Barron. "We had six or seven different defenders on him. He is that good, he carries a team, but overall I thought we did an excellent job of not letting him (run) wild.""They did a very good job with the box," said Shenandoah mentor Rob Miller. "We really didn't have much time to prepare so we just had to (wing) it until we could make things happen."After a poor first quarter, Tamaqua turned it around and eventually took the lead on a Josh Inama basket. But the seasoned Devils rallied for a 22-20 lead at the break. Santana finally hit his first basket with a trey during the run.The first-half surge by Tamaqua turned into a huge lift to open the third quarter. Santana hit a basket before the home club went on a tear. The Raiders outscored the Devils 9-2 to pull in front (29-26) with 3:02 left in the third frame.Shenandoah responded, getting a three from Santana and a basket from Noah Raisner to gain a 31-29 lead.The Raiders still had one more run, and an Inama putback with 4:10 to play gave them a 38-35 lead."That was a big basket, but we couldn't hold on," said Barron. "They just kept answering."Undaunted, the Devils (3-0) found their composure when Raisner, who was 0-for-11 from outside, bagged a three for a tie. Santana then scored six straight points to help his team hang on for the win."Let me tell you, Tamaqua is a very well-coached team, they're going to make noise before the season is over," said Miller.STAT CITY ... The rebounding was nearly equal: SV 34, Tams 33. Inama had 10 boards for the Raiders.JV WIN ... Tamaqua won the opener, 54-47. Lucas Gregoire led the winners with 18.SHENANDOAH VALLEYRaisner 2-0-0-5, Santana 6-4-6-18, Allegretta 1-0-0-2, Alvarez 4-3-4-11, Creasy 1-1-2-3, Shenoster 2-2-6-6, Michalik 0-0-0-0, Uholik 1-0-1-3, McCole 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 17-10-19-48.TAMAQUABonetsky 1-0-0-2, Stianche 0-0-0-0, Wassell 1-2-2-5, Zuber 2-3-4-8, Knoblauch 1-2-2-5, Scott 0-0-0-0, Rother 0-0-0-0, Inama 6-2-4-14, Gregoire 2-4-7-8. TOTALS:13-13-19-42.Shenandoah 11 11 9 17 - 48Tamaqua 5 15 9 13 - 42Three-pointers: SV - Santana 2, Raisner 1, Uholik 1; T - Knoblauch 1, Wassell 1, Zuber 1.