Blue Mountain got a big lift in the fourth quarter against Lehighton on Tuesday night from the biggest guy on the team.

The Indians trailed for almost the entire game on Tuesday night, and cut a once 12-point deficit to just one possession at two instances in the final frame.Jakob Biever, the Eagles 6-7 center, delivered eight of his 10 points in the fourth quarter to help propel the Eagles fend off a late Indian surge in a Schuylkill League contest, 56-47."He was great defensively in the first half," said Blue Mountain head coach Dustin Werdt of his big center. "He's a sophomore; he's still learning and has great touch around the basket. With his frame, he also gets a lot of rebounds."Blue Mountain is a balanced-scoring team with some of the strongest guard play in the Schuylkill League, which always presents a challenge for opponents. Mark Chelius and Brayden Lewis combined for half of the Eagles' points during the win."There were buckets that we missed that we should have made, but we made some big shots down the stretch," explained Werdt. "We also took care of the ball for the most part which was a big reason why we won."Blue Mountain was efficient with the ball, but Lehighton didn't live up to its expectations in that department according to head coach Rich Oertner."Their (Blue Mountain's) game plan was to take Andre (McDowell) away, and our game plan was to take their point guard away too - and we didn't do that," explained the Lehighton coach. "Everything runs through (players) 23 and 10, and we didn't take that away. It hurt us not stopping them. We worked hard, but I still think we got outsmarted tonight. They were more physical than us tonight too. But, there was a few times they had two or three shots at a time when they should have had one and that hurt us."Hunter Greene single-handedly helped Lehighton get back into the game before halftime. It's known that the senior can bang around inside, but his range was on full display despite the loss. He drained three consecutive three-pointers in 60 seconds before intermission the final one from which was from beyond the green-painted line.Oertner said, "Hunter (Greene) played the best game I ever saw him play. He did everything, the other guys I'm not so sure. We climbed back into it twice (in the fourth quarter). It seemed like every time we got there, we kind of fell apart. We're not a real physical team. We're not over the hump to get to the next level yet. For us to get there, we need to be a little smarter."Since Lehighton's move out of the former Mountain Valley Conference, these two basketball programs are developing quite the budding rivalry."We came here last year and Lehighton stuck it to us in the regular season," said Werdt. "We know it's a tough place to play. Every time we play them, it's a good game, they're hard fought kids who will battle every possession."Blue Mountain remains just one game back in the loss column of division foe Pottsville with the big Schuylkill League victory."We have a bunch of kids who can score, and three kids averaging double figures," Werdt said."They're all competitors, even the games we lost they never quit. Win or lose, no matter what the score is, they'll always continue to fight hard until the end of the contest."OFFENSE FROM EVERYWHERE … Nine players checked into the game for coach Werdt and every single one of them registered a bucket during the win.TWO OF A KIND … Hunter Greene and Nick Chambers accounted for 17 of Lehighton's 26 total rebounds on Tuesday night.ATTACKING THE RACK … Both teams were fearless when putting the ball on the floor on Tuesday, combing for a total of 47 foul shot attempts - 14 were attempted in the second quarter alone.BLUE MTN.Puzzi 1-0-0-2, Kerstetter 1-0-0-2, Welsh 1-0-0-3, Lewis 3-6-12-12, Albertini 2-0-0-5, Chelius 4-6-10-16, Zerbe 2-0-0-4, Hoynoski 1-0-0-2, Biever 5-0-0-10. TOTALS: 22-12-22-56.LEHIGHTONMcDowell 1-0-0-2, Zwetolitz 1-3-4-5, Jackson 1-6-10-8, Mele 1-2-2-4, Chambers 3-4-8-10, Greene 7-1-1-18. TOTALS: 14-16-25-47.Blue Mtn. 11 13 13 19 - 56Lehighton 7 15 9 16 - 47Three-pointers: Blue Mountain - Chelius 2, Welsh 1, Albertini 1; Lehighton - Greene 3.