It's basic basketball strategy. And it worked just as planned for Tamaqua in a 68-21 Schuylkill League win over Panther Valley.

The taller Blue Raiders took advantage of their size and got the ball inside, scoring 46 of their points on lay ups while going 27-for-61 from the field."Our game plan was we want to take the ball to the basket because obviously we were bigger and we were more physical than they were and that's a good thing," said Radier head coach Cazy Kosciolek. "Scoring close to the basket, getting to the foul line, that was kind of our game plan. We didn't shoot too well from the perimeter. But, I will take it because if we play defense like that we're going to be able to be successful."Tamaqua shut out the Panthers in the first quarter, forcing 11 turnovers and 0-for-6 shooting to take a 16-0 lead against the Schuylkill League rival.The Panthers fell behind 27-8 by halftime and made just one of 11 shots from the field over the first 16 minutes.Despite the large lead, Kosciolek feels his offense, which averages 63.2 points per game, can perform better."We played really good defensively," Kosciolek said. "We came after them a little bit. We extended the floor and played full-court defense. I liked our intensity a lot."As happy as I was with the way we played defense, I really can't say that about the offense. We were a little choppy on offense. Give Panther Valley credit, they played really hard. But, we weren't too fluent on the offense."Panther head coach Pat Crampsie agreed and said the score did not indicate how well his team played."I know it sounds crazy because of the score," he said. "But I thought our defensive effort was where it needed to be. Offensively, it was simply awful. We just could not protect the ball and that's why it got out of hand so quick. Yeah, it's very disappointing. It stings."Sam Stanko's three-pointer accounted for the only field goal of the first half for Panther Valley.Things got a little better in the third for the Blue Raiders, but not for the Panthers. The Blue Raiders shot 53 percent from the floor on their way to a 24-point third quarter. Six different Blue Raiders' scored in the third quarter as Brett Kosciolek had seven of his game-high 21 points in that frame.An Ethan Vermillion three-pointer and a two points from Tristan Blasko were all the Panthers scored in the quarter, while the Blue Raiders built on their lead even more."Our biggest concern coming into this game after Lehighton was how we were going to come out and I think that we came out and competed," Crampsie said. "Our defensive effort was there, but we just continued to shoot ourselves in the foot on offense throughout the night. We weren't even giving ourselves a chance on the offensive end."Behind Brett Kosciolek's scoring outburst, the Raiders got a pretty balanced scoring effort as Rottet and McDonald each chipped in 10, and Blaker had nine.For the Panthers, Blasko had a team-high 12 points.PANTHER VALLEYKeo 0-0-0-0, Dubosky 0-1-4-1, Vermillion 1-0-0-3, Stanko 1-0-0-3, Micholik 0-0-2-0, Nase 0-2-2-2, Miller 0-0-0-0, Hudicka 0-0-0-0, Eickoff 0-0-0-0, Weng 0-0-0-0, Fisher 0-0-0-0, Blasko 4-2-4-12, Emmert 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 6-5-12-21.TAMAQUAShilko 1-0-0-2, Blaker 4-0-0-9, Miller 1-0-0-2, Rottet 4-2-3-10, Coleman 1-0-0-2, McDonald 4-2-2-10, Murphy 0-2-2-2, Skripko 2-0-1-4, Kosciolek 9-2-5-21, Scott 0-0-0-0, Berezwick 1-3-4-6. TOTALS: 27-11-17-68.Panther Vy. 0 8 5 8 - 21Tamaqua 16 11 24 17 - 68Three-pointers: PV - Vermillion 1, Stanko 1; Tamaqua - Blaker 1, Kosciolek 1, Berezwick 1.