Pocono Mountain West presents matchup problems for many teams.

On Friday night, it was Lehighton's turn.Blessed with quickness, depth and in-your-face defense, the Panthers are looking to once again challenge for the Mountain Valley Conference championship. And after cruising past the Indians 77-47, Rich Oertner is a believer."Pocono West hustles more than any team I know," said the Lehighton head coach. "They hustle like crazy and they understand the game ... Their guards are just quicker than our guards. We struggled handling the ball and you have to give Pocono credit for that."Every guy also hits the boards for them. They just beat us in all phases of the game. If the matchups aren't there, you know you're in trouble before you even start."The Indians (6-4; 1-4) actually hung around at the start. With the Panthers missing from the perimeter early on, Lehighton used a couple driving shots from Tyler Crum and a three-pointer from Jordan Knappenberger to trail by just an 11-10 margin.West, however, began to utilize the paint and its athleticism. Joe Wiggins hit from the inside three times, which also allowed the outside game to materialize. Three three-pointers near the end of the half pushed the visitors' lead to 37-25."We were impatient early," said Pocono mentor Brad Pensyl. "It was one pass and then shoot. We have shot the ball better the last few games but that's not our game. I called a timeout and then we started to move the ball a little bit better. We became more patient at the offensive end, got better shots and converted."In the second half we gave them some problems, obviously, but that's just the way we play defense. We play man-to-man and we pressure people. The ability to get into transition and make some baskets was key."West's advantage ballooned to 25 points less than four minutes into the third quarter. With Isaiah Wiggins providing tremendous pressure on Lehighton's point guards, the Panthers (7-2; 4-1) forced five turnovers and went on a 15-2 run. The Indians could never get the deficit under 20 and fell for the second straight game."In the first half, if we would have shot better we would have been right there," said Oertner. "In the second half they just ran it down our throats. But the key to them is (Joe) Wiggins. He's tough. He's only about 5-10 but he plays like he's 6-6. They're just quicker than us, and that's usually what keeps us in games."J. Wiggins finished with a game-high 23 points while Sean Cooper added 16 points. Cooper also added 11 rebounds as West held a lopsided 43-27 rebounding edge.For Lehighton, Knappenberger had 16 points and Vince Mele tallied nine.In the JV game, Pocono Mountain West came back to gain a 51-39 win. For Lehighton, Tom Ruzicka scored a game-high 15 points.PM WESTI. Wiggins 4-0-0-8, Archer 3-4-4-11, Cooper 7-1-1-16, Brathwaite 2-2-2-7, Howard 0-0-0-0, Simon 1-0-0-2, J. Wiggins 10-3-4-23, Singh 2-0-0-4, Field 0-0-0-0, Hardy 3-0-0-6. TOTALS: 32-10-11-77.LEHIGHTONRossino 0-2-4-2, Farano 2-6-6-10, Crum 3-0-1-7, Zwetolitz 0-0-0-0, Williams 0-0-0-0, K. Knappenberger 0-0-0-0, Ruzicka 0-0-0-0, Chambers 1-0-0-2, J. Knappenberger 5-2-2-16, Mele 3-3-5-9, Greene 0-1-2-1. TOTALS: 14-14-20-47.PM West 11 26 22 18 - 77Lehighton 10 15 11 11 - 47Three-pointers: PM West - Archer 1, Cooper 1, Brathwaite 1; Lehighton - J. Knappenberger 4, Crum 1.