There are a lot of reasons for Jim Thorpe’s current seven-game winning streak.

But none have been more obvious or more important than the play of Kaiden Herron.

The Olympian sophomore continued his recent tear on Saturday, scoring 22 points, grabbing four rebounds, and making four steals in a 53-32 Schuylkill League win over Tamaqua.

“You can just see that Kaiden is gaining more and more confidence as the season goes on,” said Jim Thorpe coach Jason McElmoyle. “He’s been outstanding during our win streak.

“The North Schuylkill game was big for him. He scored 20 points in that game, and it really helped his confidence. He has been a different player since that game.”

How different?

During the first four games of the season - all Jim Thorpe losses - Herron was averaging 1.25 points per game. Since the North Schuylkill game - which started the current win streak - Herron has averaged 17.7 ppg.

Herron’s transformation from an offensive afterthought to catalyst coincides perfectly with the Olympians’ turnaround.

“Kaiden’s only a sophomore and he wasn’t playing with a lot of confidence on the offensive end early in the season. He wasn’t looking for his shot,” said McElmoyle. “That has totally changed now. He wants the ball and he’s confident when he gets it.

“He’s gone from playing about half the game at the start of the season, to the point we are now where he’s hard to take off the court.”

But while Herron’s impact has been significant, he’s been far from a one-man show.

Against the Blue Raiders, Caiden Hurley scored 12 points and grabbed five rebounds, while Chris Condly chipped in eight points. At other times during the win streak, Derryl Fisher, Jared Marykwas, David Richards and Sonny Ivey have all stepped up with big games.

“Right now, we are doing a lot of the little things right and we have a lot of players contributing,” said McElmoyle. “Our rebounding has improved, we are shooting our free throws much better, we’ve turned our defense up a notch, and we are communicating better on the court.

“We had several close losses to start the season, but the improvement in those areas has allowed us to turn things around.”

The Raiders, who are still looking for their first victory, started strong and led 9-8 after one quarter.

Jim Thorpe took control in the second quarter, however, behind the ‘Caiden and Kaiden Show’ as Hurley scored nine points and Herron scored eight, allowing the Olympians to build a 25-14 halftime lead.

Jim Thorpe, which forced 27 Tamaqua turnovers in the game and grabbed 10 offensive rebounds, gradually pulled away in the second half.

“We are still weak with the basketball and we panic when we get pressured,” said Tamaqua coach Jim Barron. “It’s hard to overcome that many turnovers.

“We also gave up too many offensive rebounds. Between the steals and rebounds, they ended up shooting layup after layup.”

HOT AND COLD ... Jim Thorpe is now 7-4 overall and 5-3 in the league. Tamaqua falls to 0-12 and 0-8.

HIGHLIGHT REEL ... Herron came up with the sweetest play of the night when he tracked down a long pass on the fastbreak, and before landing out of bounds, made a mid-air behind the back pass to Hurley for a layup.

SHUTDOWN DEFENSE ... Through three quarters, Tamaqua had 22 turnovers and had taken just 18 shots.

RAIDER LEADERS ... Nate Gregoire and Luke Verta had 13 and 11 points, respectively, for Tamaqua.

JIM THORPE

Gilliar 0-0-0-0, Condly 4-0-1-8, McHugh 0-0-0-0, Richards 0-0-0-0, Warner 1-0-0-2, Hurley 5-1-2-12, Fisher 0-3-4-3, Ivey 2-0-0-4, Herron 9-4-4-22, Marykwas 1-0-0-2. TOTALS: 22-8-11-53.

TAMAQUA

Lewis 0-0-0-0, Hoffman 0-0-0-0, Verta 4-2-5-11, Hollenbach 0-0-0-0, Davis 0-0-0-0, Sherry 3-0-0-6, Andrews 0-0-0-0, Fannock 0-0-0-0, Gregoire 5-3-3-13, Hope 0-0-0-0, Berg 0-0-0-0, McLaughlin 0-2-2-2. TOTALS: 12-7-10-32.

Jim Thorpe 8 17 9 19 - 53

Tamaqua 9 5 6 12 - 32

Three-pointers: JT - Hurley 1; Tam - Verta 1.