ALLENTOWN - Jim Thorpe became a state playoff team after its double-overtime thriller against Lehighton last week.

And the Olympians sure looked like one on Tuesday night.A quick start played right into the Olympians' plans against Salisbury in a 48-35 District 11 Class 4A semifinal victory at William Allen High School.Jim Thorpe coach Jason McElmoyle had a plan - to slow it down.And his squad executed it to near perfection to both begin and finish the second quarter."They can't score without the ball," said McElmoyle about the strategy once his team grabbed the early lead. "We made some careless mistakes that we know we can't make on Friday. But right now, we're going to enjoy this and go back to work tomorrow."The Olympians opened up the second period with a five-point advantage. They kicked things off with a one-minute possession, and came away with points on the board. Fast forward to the end of the quarter, when the Olympians held the ball for 2:40 on their final possession, killing almost half of an entire quarter during the two sequences."We were looking to run the court when we could," said Jim Thorpe's Brendan Carroll. "But we pulled it out a lot and ran our offense to try and get what we wanted. We were getting great looks at the hoop."The middle of the second frame belonged to Thorpe's Chris Micciche, who scored seven straight Olympian points. He tallied a game-high 23 and helped extend the Thorpe advantage to nine at the break."In a game like this, every possession is huge," said McElmoyle. "I thought we took advantage of them and we also got (Jaxon) Costello in foul trouble early, which was a point of emphasis. Chris (Micciche) played great. I can't say enough about him."The Olympians also won the battle on the glass with a collective effort, despite the strengths of Salisbury's height around the rim, which features the 6-4 big man Costello."We knew it would be a challenge," said the Olympians' Aaron Joyce. "But we had to box out and just go over everything that we stressed in practice. We had to get those rebounds tonight, and that really helped us out."Jim Thorpe had a 10-point lead after three. However, it felt like the Falcons were shifting momentum when the Olympians' lead was cut to six with four minutes remaining.But when adversity struck, it was Thorpe's main man Micciche who weaved for two straight layups to keep Salisbury at arm's length and essentially put the game away."We played for 32 minutes," said McElmoyle. "When we do that, this can be the result. Things are starting to click for us a little bit. We're doing all of the little things and it's great."MAKE THEM EARN IT … Salisbury committed five straight fouls late in the fourth quarter. The Falcons wanted to prolong the game and make Thorpe earned points at the line. To an extent, that strategy worked, as the Olympians missed the front end of three straight one-and-one's. But Jim Thorpe locked down defensively and Salisbury wasn't able to take advantage of the misses. "I think that was just nerves," said McElmoyle. "I'm just unbelievably proud of this group and we're excited for Friday night."CONTAINING COSTELLO … Salisbury's big man committed four fouls, while scoring just three points. He averaged 19 points per game this year. Jack Reichenbach led Salisbury with 16 points, the only Falcon to hit double figures. "Matt Elmore did a great job on them in the paint," McElmoyle said. "And guys like Aaron (Joyce) helped out. It was a total team effort top to bottom."UP NEXT … Jim Thorpe will play Bethlehem Catholic in the District 11 championship on Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the Easton Middle School. It will be the Olympians first appearance in a District 11 championship game in 25 years. The last time Thorpe played for a district title was 1992.JIM THORPECarroll 1-3-3-5, Samuel 0-0-0-0, Elmore 6-1-5-13, Micciche 10-3-2-23, Burkhart 0-0-0-0, Swartz 0-0-0-0, Joyce 1-1-2-3Ni. Rosahac 2-0-2-4, Fikentscher 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 20-6-15-48.SALISBURYGalantini 0-0-0-0, Foster 0-0-0-0, Kulp 0-0-0-0, Sylvester 1-0-0-2, Reichenbach 7-2-14-16, Slutsky 3-0-0-6, Costello 1-1-2-3, Frankenfield 0-0-0-0, Jones 3-0-0-8, Snyder 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 15-3-6-35.Jim Thorpe 13 10 11 14 - 48Salisbury 8 6 10 11 - 35Three-pointers: Jim Thorpe - Micciche 1. Salisbury - Jones 2.