David vs. Goliath.

It's a sports cliché that is used often.But in the case of the PIAA 4A boys basketball first round game between Jim Thorpe (D-11, No. 2) and Audenried (D-12, No. 3) that analogy best describes the match-up.Audenried (17-5) hails from the Philadelphia Public School League's Liberty Division where it squares off against some of the best teams in the state week in and week out.To give you an idea of how well the Rockets are playing lately, they recently played Imhotep Charter - the No. 6 ranked team in the nation according to USA TODAY - and lost by a narrow five-point margin.The Olympians (14-11) made the best of their postseason opportunities over the past two weeks. Thorpe got hot when the time was right, defeating Lehighton in double overtime and handing Salisbury a double-digit loss. Those wins advanced Jim Thorpe to the District 11 championship game against the No. 4 ranked 4A team in the state in Bethlehem Catholic.Thorpe's run came to an end thanks to the highly-touted and highly-skilled Golden Hawks, who sped up the Olympians on both ends of the court. The secret to Thorpe's success in the postseason has been slowing teams down, holding its opponents prior to Becahi to just 46 points per game.However, what the Olympians saw against the Golden Hawks, which was an athletic bunch that likes to get up and down the floor, is a lot like what they're going to see against Audenried later today."First and foremost, we have to take better care of the ball. We turned it over way too much against Becahi and you can't give teams with that much athleticism constant transition opportunities," said Jim Thorpe head coach Jason McElmoyle. "We know Audenried likes to get up and down the floor, we just have to try and keep our composure and battle through any runs they might have."For the Rockets, the game plan is simple. Play with high energy and use their length and quickness on the defensive side of the ball to try and create turnovers.Audenried boasts two first team Philadelphia Public League Liberty Division players in 6-2 shooting guard Nisheem McNeal-Wright and 6-5 big man Terrence Moore. Second team selection Shaheed Fagan-Haynes (6-4) and honorable mention selection Damir Prescott (6-4) figure to make an impact in the game as well."It's key for us to play with discipline, but also we want to play with high-energy and really get after it on the defensive side of the ball," said Rockets head coach Kenyatta Bey. "We play up-tempo and we like to push the ball. I think the key to our success lately has been our team defense. We've been playing really well."Handling the vaunted Audenried pressure will be Jim Thorpe senior guards Brendan Carroll (9.32 ppg) and Chris Micciche (13.24 ppg). The experienced guard tandem struggled a bit against the Becahi pressure in the early going, but settled in as the game went on. Still, Thorpe committed 18 turnovers in the game against the Golden Hawks, which is something that can't repeat itself against the Rockets.Coach McElmoyle wants his guards to be aggressive, but to also have patience in an attempt to frustrate and wear down an Audenried team that is used to quick possessions."There's no doubt I think we need to be more aggressive attacking the paint, but we need to make sure we're getting quality looks. If we call a set and it's not there we have to bring it back out, we need to live to fight another day."It's critical for us to try and wear them down on the offensive end and then on the defensive end play under control and force them to shoot from the outside."The Rockets hold a significant size advantage over the Olympians at almost every position on the floor. Rebounding, especially keeping Audenried off the offensive boards, will be key for Thorpe.The Olympians' man inside, Matt Elmore (13 ppg, 7.0 rebounds per game) will need to bring his "A-game" against the Rockets in the paint."We need to do a good job of team-rebounding. We did a good job of keeping Becahi out of the paint for the most part in our last game, we just didn't rebound well enough at times," said McElmoyle. "Audenried has some skilled players inside that will make you pay if you don't box out or find a body. Everyone needs to step up in the rebounding department."