The Jim Thorpe girls' basketball team needed a spark.

After watching an eight-point lead desolve into a 34-33 deficit by the end of the third quarter, an exasperated Rob Kovac searched for something - anything - to reignite the Lady Olympians' offense.He didn't have to look far.After scoring 15 points in the first half, Kayley Kovac came up big when her team needed it the most, posting 11 points in the final quarter to lead Jim Thorpe to a 47-44 victory over Lehighton in the championship game of the Lady Indians Holiday Classic."At the start of the fourth, I grabbed Kayley by the arm and told her that this is the time kids of her stature and her credentials take over," Kovac said of his daughter. "She was an All-State player a year ago and I told her to be an All-State player in the fourth quarter."The sophomore wasted little time reasserting herself. Kovac, who finished with a game-high 28 points and earned tournament MVP honors, converted a layup on the Lady Olympians (9-2, 4-1) first possession of the fourth quarter to give the team a 35-34 lead, one it would never relinquish."You forget they're kids, especially with our team because we're playing mostly freshmen and sophomores," the coach said. "I think the kids are more resilient than we are because I'm not sure if they know any better sometimes. We just told them to calm down and make better decisions."Both teams showed resolve throughout Tuesday night's contest.The Lady Indians (6-3, 2-3) held a 21-20 lead late in the second quarter before two Kovac free throws and a Rebecca Cressman (six points) layup gave Jim Thorpe a 24-21 advantage just before the end of the half.The momentum continued into the third quarter. The Lady Olympians pushed the margin to 29-21 - the biggest lead for either side in the game - before Lehighton started to mount its comeback.Back-to-back baskets by Jada Whiteman (seven points) brought the Lady Indians within one at 33-32 with 1:53 to play in the third quarter. Aubrey Blasiak (13 points, three three-pointers) hit two of her three free throws to put Lehighton up 34-33 heading into the final quarter.Though Jim Thorpe never trailed following Kovac's layup early in the fourth, the Lady Indians certainly didn't make it easy, sending the Lady Olympians to the free throw line 20 times in the final period. Kovac hit 9-of-16 foul shots in the waning minutes of the game.While Kovac had the biggest impact, Lehighton head coach Eric Gidney acknowledged the talented sophomore couldn't garner all of his team's attention on the defensive end."It's still a team game," he said. "You still have to honor and respect everybody else they have on the floor. But you have to disturb them enough as a team with your defense that they spend too much time trying to figure out what you're doing and not enough time running their offense."That's what we tried to do. … we tried to make them work for it."The gritty win is one that has the younger Kovac excited about what's to come both this year and in the future."We're still real young. There are times we have four sophomores and a freshman on the court," she said. "I think we're starting to get a lot of experience learning how to play close games. Sometimes you have to lose close games, which is what we've done, to know how to win close ones like this."How we've played in those losses has really helped us to learn how to win. It should be fun the next few years with this group of girls."HONORED ... The Lady Indians Holiday Classic All-Tournament Team was comprised of Palmerton's Linnaea Leister, Northern Lehigh's Kaitlyn Hoffman, Lehighton's Skylynn Faust and Allie Rossino and Jim Thorpe's Rebecca Cressman. The Lady Olympians' Kayley Kovac was named tournament MVP.STAT LINE ... In addition to Blasiak, Faust also scored 13 points for the Lady Indians, while Rossino tallied nine points.COINCIDENCE? … For the second time this year, Jim Thorpe earned a three-point win over Lehighton. The Lady Olympians defeated the Lady Indians 41-38 on Dec. 15.JIM THORPERichards 0-0-0-0, P. Kovac 1-2-4-5, Condly 0-0-0-0, Ohl 0-2-2-2, Naranjo 2-0-2-4, K. Kovac 8-12-24-28, Cressman 3-0-0-6, Waselus 1-0-2-2, Lignore 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 15-16-34-47.LEHIGHTONRossino 3-2-2-9, Muffley 0-0-0-0, Whiteman 3-0-2-7, Blasiak 4-2-3-13, Frey 0-0-2-0, Beck 0-0-1-0, Drofich 0-0-0-0, Faust 4-5-7-13, Buchinsky 1-0-0-2, Bollinger 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 15-9-17-44.Jim Thorpe 9 15 9 14 - 47Lehighton 9 12 13 10 - 44Three-pointers: Jim Thorpe - P. Kovac 1; Lehighton - Blasiak 3, Whiteman 1, Rossino 1.