Basketball is a game of runs is one of the most used cliches in the sport, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true.

In fact, a phrase usually becomes a cliche because of its consistent truth.

Friday night in a Schuylkill League Division 1 battle with Jim Thorpe, Tamaqua proved that cliche true once again to come away with a 63-44 victory.

After the Raiders (5-1, 2-0) held a five-point advantage after one thanks to some hot shooting — they hit three triples in the quarter — it looked as if they were poised to run away early.

Senior Derian Stianche was pivotal in the opening frame, scoring nine of his game-high 19 points to get things rolling for Tamaqua.

But Thorpe got its offense going a bit to start the second, closing to within one with 6:42 to go in the half.

That’s when the Raiders would hit their stride and went on the run that would eventually help them get the win.

A 16-2 Raider spurt the rest of the way in the second quarter would give the Raiders a comfortable 33-18 advantage at intermission. The half was capped off by a Brayden Knoblauch’s three as time expired that gave Tamaqua a surge of momentum heading into the locker room.

“I thought when we took care of the ball we did a good job in the half-court of executing offensively,” said Tamaqua head coach Jim Barron. “We thought we had some mismatches that if we moved the ball well we could exploit and we were able to do that.

“We had some other guys step up and make open shots and find open areas when Rosahac helped on some of our more consistent scorers and that was big for us. That’s what we need from the Agostis and Zehners. I was happy with how we executed tonight.”

With Thorpe paying extra attention to versatile power forward Lucas Gregoire, Devon Zehner and Tavio Agosti did a good job of finding open creases on the floor and finishing. The two scored nine apiece on the evening, hitting big shots when the Raiders needed timely buckets.

That was another key for the Tamaqua in this one, stopping any and all Thorpe momentum with timely deuces.

The Olympians (3-4, 0-3) cut Tamaqua’s lead to 12 or 13 numerous times in the third quarter and actually got within single digits around the four-minute mark in the fourth, but they could never string together enough consistent offense to get over the hump.

The Raiders finished the game strong with a 14-4 run to put Thorpe away.

“I thought we had our chances to get back in the game. Our kids played hard, we just weren’t able to knock down some good looks at key times in the game,” said Olympians head coach Jason McElmoyle. “Hey, that’s a good team. They took advantage when we had breakdowns defensively, and they knocked down big shots.

“But I liked how our kids fought.”

LEADERS... Scoring in double figures with Stianche for Tamaqua was Knoblauch with 14. For Thorpe, Zack Searfoss led the way with 10 points, Caiden Hurley came through with nine, including three triples and Nate Rosahac and James Adames added eight each.

TAMAQUA

Bonetsky 0-2-4-2, Stianche 6-5-6-19, Griffin 0-0-0-0, Mateyak 0-0-0-0, Knoblauch 6-0-0-14, Bolletino 0-0-0-0, Zehner 4-1-5-9, Gutierrez 1-0-0-2, Agosti 4-1-1-9, N. Gregoire 0-0-0-0, L. Gregoire 2-3-4-8. Totals: 23-12-20-63.

JIM THORPE

Searfoss 4-1-2-10, Burak 2-0-0-5, Santiago 0-0-0-0, Cannariato 1-0-0-2, Hurley 3-0-0-9, Condly 0-0-0-0, Fikenstcher 0-0-0-0, Adams 3-2-2-8, Lauer 1-0-0-2, Rosahac 3-2-7-8. Totals: 17-5-11-44.

Tamaqua 17 16 14 16 - 63

Jim Thorpe 12 6 14 12 - 44

Three-pointers: T - Stianche 2, Knoblauch 2, L. Gregoire 1; JT - Hurley 3, Searfoss 1, Burak 1.