North Schuylkill head coach John Rizzo dubbed Monday's clash with Lehighton as a "must win."

Dominate Lady Spartan rebounding helped fulfill Rizzo's must-win request, as North Schuylkill ran away with a 58-29 Schuylkill League victory over the Lady Indians."We moved Averi (Jordan) to the post, she played a lot of perimeter last year," explained Rizzo. "Now we have her inside a little more. I think our sophomores have stepped up and filled those roles very well in trying to fill the voids of losing our bigs last year."As Rizzo noted, Jordan's impact wasn't just felt in the paint "a little more" on Monday - it was felt, a lot. The sophomore racked up 19 points and eight boards during the critical victory. Jordan was a big contributor in out-rebounding Lehighton by over 20 on the night."When you play a team that's as well coached and prepared as coach Rizzo's squad, you can't continue to give them second, third, and fourth chances," said Lehighton head coach Eric Gidney. "It gives them more looks and touches with the ball in their hands, and eventually the shots are going to start to fall, and that's what we saw happen."It was just a four-point affair after one quarter, but North Schuylkill went on a 10-1 run to open up the second frame. The Spartan spurt was thanks to a ton of second-chance scores and stiff defense, which led to easy transition buckets.Rizzo explained, "Our goal was to come out and pressure their guards. We like to do that as much as we can, and the girls get excited to fly and dive around the court for loose balls and having traps that create bad passes. We did a good job of playing with that philosophy tonight."The lone Lehighton player to score in the third quarter was Skylynn Faust, who accounted for the entire six-point third period for the Tribe.Gidney saw a bit of a kink in the armor of his zone defense, which helped fuel another 13-1 sequence by the Spartans."Where we struggled tonight was on our defensive rotation," said the Lehighton coach. "We really got caught on the weak side a lot, which again gave them (North Schuylkill) rebounding position and opportunity to drive to the paint and dish. We've uncharacteristically struggled for a little bit over the past two games with our shooting, but we need to do other things better too, such as rebounding the basketball."GOT EM' WHERE WE WANT EM' ... Losses to both Blue Mountain and Pottsville surely weren't ideal for the Spartans, but Rizzo doesn't mind the position that his team is currently in."I think a majority of the Schuylkill League might have written us off - and we like that," Rizzo said. "Right now, we just take care of business. I think we still have a good shot of making these teams earn the division title."BENCH-PRESSED ... A big part of North Schuylkill's success on Monday was due to the performance of its bench. The second-unit Spartans combined for 18 points during the win.NORTH SCHUYLKILLOssman 0-0-2-0, Lapotsky 4-0-2-9, Shinkus 3-1-2-7, Peleschak 0-0-0-0, Spotts 0-0-0-0, Bonomo 3-0-0-6, Damiter 1-0-0-2, Bell 3-0-0-7, Gregas 1-0-0-2, Snyder 1-0-0-3, Jordan 8-2-4-19, Zimmernan 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 25-4-12-58.LEHIGHTONRossino 1-1-2-3, Muffley 2-0-0-4, Long 0-0-0-0, Whiteman 0-0-1-0, Blasiak 1-3-6-5, Frey 0-0-0-0, Beck 2-0-0-4, Drofich 0-0-0-0, Faust 4-2-4-10, Buchinsky 1-0-0-2, Bollinger 0-1-2-1. TOTALS: 11-7-14 29.No. Schuylkill 15 13 20 10 - 58Lehighton 11 3 6 9 - 29Three-pointers: NS - Gregas 1, Lapotsky 1, Snyder 1, Jordan 1; Leh - none.