More so than often, most basketball coaches would likely prefer to rely on a man-to-man scheme on defense.

A change to a zone defense was the right move for Palmerton, however, in its opening game of the Lady Indian Holiday Classic against host Lehighton.After holding on to a three-point lead at half, Blue Bomber head coach Rodney Strohl chose to make a switch in his game plan to start the second half. The move paid dividends as the Bombers' offense fed off its defense to go on a 14-0 run in the first five minutes of the third quarter and eventually secure itself a 57-39 victory over the Indians.It was the Bombers second win over the Indians this season, and also sets the Bombers up for their fourth championship game in the tournament in four years for their senior players."We made a little change to start the second half," said Strohl. "Instead of playing man-to-man full-court, we went into our diamond press and into the zone to see how they would react to that."We wanted to see if we could catch them off-guard and we did."In the first half however, the Indians kept pace with the Bombers. And that was without their co-captains, Allie Rossino and Riley Durishin, because of ankle injuries. In fact, an Aubrey Blasiak lay-up and a Skylynn Faust three-pointer gave the Indians an early 5-0 lead.After another Faust three-pointer put the Indians up 8-4 with 4:24 left in the opening quarter, the Bombers took the momentum in their favor and went on a 11-2 run - thanks in part to Abby Reimer hitting for 10 of her 16 points in the final four minutes of the opening frame.After Palmerton took a slim four-point lead into the next quarter, the Bombers and Indians continued to exchange buckets throughout the duration of the second quarter.When the bell rung for intermission, the Bombers took only a three-point lead into the lockerroom. While the Bombers saw four different players put points on the scoreboard, the Indians' Jada Whiteman had the hot hand hitting for 10 of what turned out to be a team high that night 14 points.The three-point deficit for the Indians totally took a turn for the worse as the Bombers worked a full court press and a 3-2 zone defense to perfection. And then, it didn't help matters either as the Bombers' offense fed completely off its defense and built a one comfortable lead.Madison Mummey scored eight of her game-high 21 points, while Bomber teammate Jade Farquhar hit for four of her double-digit 10 points in the first five minutes of the second half. Reimer chipped in with a deuce to start the second half. The Bombers didn't allow the Indians to score a bucket either until there was three minutes left in the third quarter when Whiteman hit a baseline jumper.The fourth quarter didn't get any better for Lehighton coach Eric Gidney and his staff as the Indians couldn't find the solution to the Bombers' 3-2 zone defense and a chance to buy some extra buckets to even think about staying close."They were able to execute and perform to go in down by three at halftime," said Gidney, whose Indians shot 11-for-22 in the first half, but only were able to 6-for-19 effort in the second half. "That youth and inexperience kinda came out a little bit in the second half and I was afraid that it would. Obviously with some adversity and two captains on crutches, we can't use that as any kind of an excuse. We got to be able to fight through that adversity."We'll learn from it, bounce back and play again tomorrow."PALMERTONMissal 0-0-0-0, Smale 0-0-0-0, Reimer 6-3-5-16, Mummey 10-0-2-21, Leister 2-0-0-6, Farquhar 4-2-4-10, Wentz 0-0-0-0, Sterling 1-0-0-2, Beers 0-0-0-0, Nemeth 1-0-0-2, Goodhile 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 24-5-11-57.LEHIGHTONMuffley 0-0-0-0, Whiteman 6-0-0-14, Fital 2-1-4-5, B. Blasiak 4-0-0-8, A. Blasiak 2-0-0-4, Beck 0-0-0-0, Drofich 0-0-0-0, Faust 3-0-0-8, Buchinsky 0-0-0-0, Frey 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 17-1-4-39.Palmerton 18 12 15 12 - 57Lehighton 14 13 6 6 - 39Three-pointers: Palm - Leister 2, Reimer 1, Muffley 1; Leh - Whiteman 2, Faust 2.