A 15-point swing in favor of Lehighton gave the Indians the boost they needed to take a 57-49 opening night win over Palmerton in the boys end of a doubleheader that began with a girls varsity contest in the PHS gymnasium.

The Bombers jumped out to a 19-11 lead after scoring the first seven points of the contest, but a Jake Knappenberger gave the Indians their first lead of the night at 23-21 and they never trailed the rest of the way."Palmerton's not a bad team at all," said Lehighton head coach Rich Oertner afterwards. "They're going to win their share of games this year."We missed a lot of shots in the first half and I think we were tight. To be honest with you this is the first time I came into a season where I wasn't sure what I had. Tommy Ruzicka never played a basketball game before. He practices hard and works hard so we were hoping that was going to work."Nick Chambers made some shots I didn't expect, but to be honest with you, he's made some of those along the way. I don't like when he shoots them because we're not in there to rebound."Tyler Williams kept the Indians in the game early scoring seven of his team's 11 points in the first quarter. He also added a pair of buckets in the second quarter comeback."Williams is one of those commodities that I don't know what I'm going to get out of him. He kept us in it early when Palmerton took away our scorers (Knappenberger and Tyler Crum). I think we have more scorers this year than in the past so it'll get spread around a little bit.Mike Stasko, Spencer Hay and Mark Quinn all contributed in the Bombers fast start that gave them the nice lead. Hay had seven, Stasko six and Quinn five for 18 of their team's 19 points in the first eight minutes.Knappenberger had nine of his 12 points in the second quarter that saw the Indians move out to a 33-26 advantage at intermission.In the third quarter, it was Chambers with a pair of big three's and another bucket to increase Lehighton's lead to 48-34.The Bombers weren't done yet, however. Hay finished with seven points in the fourth quarter as the Bombers cut it to 50-44 with plenty of time left. The Indians made five free throws down the stretch to keep the Bombers from getting closer.Chambers had a game-high 17 points for Lehighton, while Knappenberger and Williams had 12 apiece and Crum had 11.Hay had a game high 22 points for Palmerton, while Stasko added 12 hitting on 8-of-10 free throws."We didn't do too well in the second quarter and I thought they did," said Palmerton head coach Leigh Keenan. "I though we bounced back in the fourth quarter and had them there a little bit. We need to make a couple more shots and stay consistent. That was what I was worried about. Finding our go-to spot to score."Chambers hitting those three's were out of this world. We didn't expect that at all and that was the difference."As long as we stay aggressive and stay hungry, we'll get those wins.LEHIGHTONRuzicka 2-1-2-5, Crum 4-2-5-11, Zwetolitz 0-0-0-0, Williams 5-1-2-12, Chambers 6-2-2-17, Knappenberger 3-5-5-12. TOTALS: 20-11-16-57.PALMERTONHay 10-1-3-22, Svetik 0-0-0-0, Weber 2-1-2-6, Papay 0-0-0-0, Suto 0-1-2-1, Quinn 3-2-3-8, Buck 0-0-0-0, Stasko 2-8-10-12. TOTALS: 17-13-20-49.Lehighton 11 22 15 9 - 57Palmerton 19 7 8 15 - 49Three-pointers: L - Chambers 3, Crum 1, Williams 1, Knappenberger 1; P - Hay 1, Weber 1.