ORWIGSBURG – It wasn’t the typical start for Jim Thorpe.

But the ending was silky smooth.

The Olympians took a while to get going against Blue Mountain Monday night, but when they found their stride, they breezed to the finish line like a champion horse, claiming a 50-23 victory.

Thorpe’s attempt to clinch the Schuylkill League Division 1 title seemed to be taking somewhat of a mental toll against Blue Mountain.

Jim Thorpe looked way out of sync in the opening half, unable to create an up-tempo sty;e against a determined Eagles squad.

The Olympians weren’t sharp, maybe because Oliva Smelas — the team’s dynamo freshman center — worked her way out of the flow with a pair of quick fouls.

Maybe it was because the Olympians weren’t looking self-assured.

Or maybe it was because on Senior Night, the Eagles wanted to give their departing players a good send off.

Unfortunately for Blue Mountain, it didn’t get to celebrate with a victory, but the glee ended up being all Jim Thorpe’s as the Olympians roared in the second half to yet another impressive victory.

Thrashing the home team with their patterned ball-hawking, Jim Thorpe forced 16 second-half turnovers en route to the division clincher.

“We talked about tonight’s importance … we could end the divisional race,” said Jim Thorpe head coach Rob Kovac. “You’ve got to give Blue Mountain credit. They gave us their best in the first half. I thought we played poorly, but again credit Blue Mountain.

“They took us out of a lot of things we wanted to do, and we survived with (Smelas) being out for five, six minutes.”

The result was an uninspiring 22-19 halftime lead for the Olympians.

Blue Mountain kept forging and pushing things to its liking, mainly due to the terrific play of freshman Lindsay Kutz and juniors Rachel Lukacz and Leah Pishock.

“I thought we played very well in the first half, but then left it in the locker room,” said Blue Mountain mentor Ruth Weidman. “But you’ve got to give Jim Thorpe credit. (Leila Hurley) is really strong out there, plus, they’ve got some long athletes.”

Where the Olympians excel is patience; no pushing panic buttons. And that showed to start the second half.

Jim Thorpe (19-0; 12-0) picked up the tempo outside, forcing mistake after mistake to surge from a 24-21 lead to a dominating 38-21 lead after three periods of play.

Skyler Searfoss went to the rack for six unanswered points, Hurley added a bucket, and Smelas picked up two more points off a great inside post-up move. When Searfoss sank two fouls and Kristen Scott got a terrific assist from Smales, everything was back in rhythm for the Olympians.

“When we came in at halftime, the negative was we didn’t play very well, but the positive was we knew we were going to play much better in the second half,” said Kovac.

“What (Smelas) did for us defensively in the third quarter was unbelievable.”

It doesn’t show up in the stat sheet, but the deflections by Smelas allowed Thorpe to press the issue outside.

“Our guards can be much more aggressive with her in the back, she’s unbelievable,” said Kovac. And when Smelas hit another shot inside to open the fourth period, it was the start of another string of points that lifted the team to its 19th straight win.

“They’re going to be a fun team to watch,” said Weidman, who won a trio of state titles at Nativity.

BLISTERING … Jim Thorpe struggled in the first half, shooting 7-of-19, before going 13-22 in the second half. The Olympians rang up 6-of-7 shots to start the third period.

DEFENDING … Thorpe forced Blue Mountain (12-9; 7-6) into an ugly 1-for-10 shooting effort in the final two quarters. The Eagles had the better of it off the glass, 33-29, with 22 of those coming in the first two quarters.

JIM THORPE

Searfoss 8-7-9-23, Smelas 6-1-2-13, Hurley 3-0-2-7, Richards 2-0-0-5, Scott 1-0-2-2, Snisky 0-0-2-0, Berger 0-0-0-0, Solt 0-0-0-0, Craigle 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 20-8-17-50.

BLUE MOUNTAIN

Kutz 3-0-0-7, R. Lukacz 3-0-1-6, Fasnacht 2-1-2-6, Pishock 2-0-0-4, L. Lukacz 0-0-2-0, Zelinsky 0-0-2-0, Beam 0-0-0-0, Yeager 0-0-0-0, Costa 0-0-0-0, Spotts 0-0-0-0, Mason 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 10-1-7-23.

Jim Thorpe 13 9 16 12 - 50

Blue Mtn. 11 8 2 2 - 23

Three-pointers: Jim Thorpe - Hurley 1, Richards 1; Blue Mountain - Kutz 1, Fasnacht 1.