Over the years, it seems there are two things that most if not all Mahanoy area basketball players are known for.

Those two things are the ability to shoot and the ability to play tough man-to-man defense.On Friday in the opening game of the Panther Valley Tip Off Tournament, the Bears showed that they once again possess those important attributes.Mahanoy forced Jim Thorpe into 23 turnovers and drained 11 three-pointers on the night en route to a 58-46 non-league victory over the Olympians.It was easy to tell that it was each team's first game of the season in the first half. Play was sloppy and neither team was very successful on the offensive side of the floor.In fact, the Bears and Olympians combined for just 33 points in the first and second quarter with Mahanoy holding a 17-16 advantage at the half."In the first half you could definitely tell there were some jitters from both sides," said first year Mahanoy head coach Ethan Eichhorst. "We got over it though and it was time for us to play Mahanoy basketball. We cut down on our turnovers and started to hit some shots from the outside. That helped us get out to a nice lead."The Bears went on the offensive in the third quarter outscoring Jim Thorpe 23-14. The Olympians also didn't do a good job of taking care of the ball once again, turning it over six times in the frame."Our goal was to get the ball into the post, we felt like we had the advantage down low, but we just didn't do a good job of getting the ball in there," said Jim Thorpe coach Jason McElmoyle. "Every time we tried to pass the ball inside the ball would get tipped or deflected. Credit them, they dictated the tempo of the game and forced us into bad decisions."Throughout the second half Jim Thorpe would hang tough and actually closed the gap to within eight to ten points on a few occasions. But the Bears would always thwart any type of Olympians momentum with a triple from the outside.The Bears hit three three-pointers in the last five minutes of the fourth quarter to keep Thorpe at bay, leading to an eventual 12-point victory."Tonight our style of play worked out great for us. We try to get up and down the floor and play good defense. We also like to shoot the three and tonight we were hitting our shots, which was an added luxury for us," said Eichhorst. "A lot of our senior players made some big shots tonight, so you have to give credit to those guys. This was a great team win to open the season."CHAMPIONSHIP GAME ... With their win over the Olympians the Bears will face Marian in the championship game of the PV Tip Off Tournament. The Colts defeated the Panthers in the second game on Friday.SUPER SENIOR ... Mahanoy senior Matt Yedsena led all scorers on the night with 22 points. Yedsena got hot in the second half, hitting four of his five three-pointers in the third quarter.MAHANOY DAGGERS ... JT closed within nine twice at the 3:30 mark and 2:30 mark, but the Bears Marcus Styka stifled any comeback attempt with two three-pointers. His last three at the 2:30 mark put the nail in the Olympians coffin.MAHANOY AREAWronski 3-1-2-10, Yedsena 7-3-4-22, M. Derr 0-0-0-0, Styka 3-0-0-8, McGee 3-0-0-7, Joseph 2-3-4-7, R. Derr 2-0-2-4. Totals: 20-7-12-58.JIM THORPECarroll 4-2-2-12, Elmore 0-0-0-0, Miccicche 5-5-7-16, Green 6-4-7-16, Jefferson 0-0-0-0, Lauer 0-0-0-0, Twardzik, 0-0-0-0, McEmoyle 0-0-0-0, Rosahac 0-0-0-0.Mahanoy A. 13 4 23 18 - 58Jim Thorpe 6 10 14 16 - 46Three-pointers: MA- Yedsena 5, Wronski 3, Styka 2, McGee 1; JT - Carroll 2, Micchiche 1.