ORWIGSBURG From the start of the winter sports season, Tamaqua's boys basketball team has been on a mission.

And after Friday's 39-24 victory over Blue Mountain, that mission has officially been completed."On Nov. 17 our goal was to qualify for the Schuylkill League playoffs," said Blue Raider head coach Caszy Kosciolek. "It's been 20 years (since the program was there). That was our goal. And it's a really good feeling."I told the kids they didn't back into this. They spent a lot of time watching film, working hard in practice, and putting up with our demands as coaches. They accepted that and they thrived."Where Tamaqua (18-4; 11-3) thrived most against the Eagles was in its zone defense.Needing a victory in its regular-season finale to claim the league's wildcard spot, the Raiders got off to a sluggish start. Opening up in man, Kosciolek's club fell behind 10-6 in the first five minutes.A switch to zone, however, turned the tide in Tamaqua's favor."We were really active in the zone and played really hard," said Raider senior Brett Kosciolek, who scored a game-high 22 points. "We had a lot of energy and knew we had to step it up after the first quarter because we didn't do a good job then.""Our shots weren't falling at the beginning of the game, so we knew we just had to play defense and if we played defense the offense would come," added classmate Bo Rottet.With Blue Mountain's perimeter game non-existent (the Eagles ended the contest 0-for-13 from three-point range) and Tamaqua controlling the boards (36-20), the visitors turned the deficit into a lead it would never relinquish.In fact, the Raiders kept their opponent off the scoreboard for a stretch of over 10 minutes. During that span, which lasted from early in the second quarter to midway through the third, Tamaqua went on a 12-0 run to take a 23-14 advantage. Kosciolek tallied eight of the points during that time frame."We played with a lot of heart," said Brett Kosciolek, who also pulled down 10 rebounds, including five offensive. "We only gave up four points that quarter and our defense was outstanding. We weren't hitting our shots early and (assistant coach J.C. Dietz) told us to take it to the basket. We started driving and making inside shots."Kosciolek and Rottet continued to make inside shots after Blue Mountain ended the dryspell with a free throw with 4:23 left in the third. The senior tandem combined for the next five field goals, all from close range, to help extend the margin to 33-19.The Eagles never got closer the rest of the way."We were really able to close on their shooters and we contested shots," said Coach Kosciolek about his team's defensive play. "We gave up 10 points right off the bat. Our man wasn't the best, but we made adjustments, the kids talked a lot and we're getting comfortable running our zone. I think it's a force right now."One of our goals this year was to become better defensively and we tried a bunch of things. And we settled with zone. It's based on the opponent, but we did a really nice job tonight."Rottet also reached double figures, finishing with 11 points."It's big making the league playoffs," said Rottet. "We didn't have the best year our freshmen season and we got better and better in our sophomore and junior years. Now in our senior year we finally made it and it's awesome."In the JV game, Blue Mountain claimed a 54-43 win.TAMAQUAShilko 0-0-0-0, Blaker 1-0-0-2, Miller 0-1-4-1, Rottet 4-3-6-11, Wassell 0-0-0-0, Zuber 0-1-2-1, MacDonald 1-0-2-2, Murphy 0-0-0-0, Skripko 0-0-0-0, Kosciolek 11-0-1-22, Scott 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 17-5-15-39.BLUE MOUNTAINStramara 1-0-0-2, Kerstetter 1-0-2-2, Barton 0-1-2-1, Welsh 0-0-0-0, Lewis 3-2-2-8, Chelius 4-1-2-9, Albertini 1-0-0-2, Zerbe 0-0-0-0, Biever 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 10-4-8-24.Tamaqua 10 11 10 8 - 39Blue Mtn. 10 4 5 5 - 24Three-pointers: None.