No one can really explain why it happens.

In football, a team that hasn't gotten a first down in nearly a half, suddenly finds a rhythm and drives 80 yards for a touchdown. In baseball, a team without a hit for the first six innings suddenly puts together five in a row to score three runs.In basketball, a team that has trouble finding the basket for a long stretch goes on a huge run to take control of the game.The Tamaqua Blue Raiders had two runs in which they outscored Jim Thorpe by a total of 30-6 to pull away for a 50-34 Schuylkill League victory."We couldn't find our rhythm at the start," said Raiders' coach Caszy Kosciolek. "We had too many wasted possessions and took too many low percentage shots."Jim Thorpe's Jordan McElmoyle opened the scoring with a three-pointer at the seven minute mark, but Russell Blaker's field goal and foul shot put the Raiders on top by two one minute later. After Thorpe's Rayan Green's in the lane jumper tied the game at five, Tamaqua, with a strong in the paint attack, then scored the next 11 points on three buckets from senior, Brett Kosciolek, one from Tyler Skripko, and a trey from Thad Zuber."We obviously have to play more consistently," said Jim Thorpe coach Jason McElmoyle. "Our effort was there all night, but against a great team like Tamaqua, we have to perform well the whole game."The Raiders lengthened their lead to 20-7 with 5:05 to go in the second period and threatened to blow the game open. Thorpe's Brendan Carroll put a stop to that notion when he drained three treys within a two minute span and his Olympians trailed by just seven points at the break.Tamaqua (13-2, 7-1) began to struggle against the Olympians' man-to-man defense at the start of the third period."They did a great job of doubling Brett (Kosciolek) and slowed down our offense," said coach Kosciolek.Chris Micciche's full court layup with 4:45 to go in the third brought Jim Thorpe (5-9, 2-5) to within five at 29-24, but the Raiders, working the ball inside for high percentage layups, scored 19 of the next 24 points to pull away. Bo Rottet's baseline reverse layup with 2:50 to go in the game put a stamp on a 48-30 advantage."We have the problems that young teams will have," said McElmoyle. "We need to put the ball in the basket to stop these kind of runs. As you can see, we stayed with a qualified playoff team for a good part of three quarters, but then their defense forced us into places we didn't want to be and we took shots we shouldn't be taking."To give credit where it is due, the Olympian defense held high scoring Kosciolek, who had 11 points at the half to just one bucket in the final two periods."We came in here knowing that Jim Thorpe is a much improved team," said coach Kosciolek. "They lost by one to a very good Blue Mountain team and played us close for most of three periods.""We are competing against almost everyone, " said McElmoyle, but we need to get over that hump at times when we struggle and then we let the game get away from us.""We played better in the last 10 minutes or so," said Kosciolek. "Our defense limited their shots and we had some nice passes underneath to score some easy baskets."Brett Kosciolek led the Raiders in scoring with 13 points, followed by Rottet who hit double figures with 10. The Olympians were paced by Carroll's four treys for 12 points.TAMAQUABlaker 2-2-2-6, Rottet 3-4-7-10, Kosciolek 6-0-0-13, Miller 0-0-0-0, Skripko 3-1-2-7, MacDonald 3-2-2-8, Shilko 0-0-0-0, Zuber 2-0-0-6, Berezwick 0-0-0-0, Scott 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 19-9-13-50.JIM THORPECarroll 4-0-0-12, Veney 0-0-0-0, Green 4-1-4-9, Micciche 1-0-0-2, S, Snisky 2-0-0-4, Everitt 2-0-0-4, McElmoyle 1-0-0-3, Elmore 0-0-0-0, O. Snisky 0-0-0-0, Twardzick 0-0-0-0, Luciano 0-0-0-0, Jefferson 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 14-1-4-34.Tamaqua 16 9 10 15 - 50Jin Thorpe 5 13 7 9 - 34Three- - pointers: Tam - Zuber - 2, Kosciolek - 1. JT - McElmoyle - 1, Carroll - 4.