It was a fairly normal start.

But in the blink of an eye, everything drastically changed.

Relying on its pressure defense, Jim Thorpe turned a close Schuylkill League contest into a rout Friday night as the Olympians raced past a shell-shocked Lehighton team, 54-17.

“It was close there for a while,” said Thorpe head coach Jason McElmoyle. “It was nice for our guys to finally dictate the tempo, and that’s what we wanted to do. I thought we played unselfish, and I thought we played sound basketball for 32 minutes for the first time in a while. It always seems we play 27 or 28 minutes, but tonight we played a full 32. Everybody was involved, and everybody did their job.

“Our defense was our best offense tonight. That led to a lot of transition points for us. I was really proud of our defense.”

The Indians’ Luke Blauch converted inside 17 seconds into the second period to trim the Olympians’ lead to 14-9. But it was all downhill for the visitors after that.

Thorpe’s D forced 12 turnovers in Lehighton’s next 18 possessions, which led to a 26-1 run. McElmoyle’s club, which struggled early from the perimeter, received three-pointers from Josh Spruill, Jasper DiSanto and Colby McHugh to help start the onslaught. Kaiden Herron, who finished the night with a season-high 21 points, accounted for the Olympians’ final six points of the half in the paint to give the hosts a commanding 40-10 advantage.

“They’re a good pressure-defense team, and we knew that,” said Lehighton mentor Trevor Miller. “But understanding it and handling it are two different things. Tonight we didn’t handle it.

“When good teams aren’t knocking shots down, they find other ways to score. They started to ... score inside, and then they eventually started to make some outside shots. Things snowballed after that.”

Jim Thorpe’s defense continued to stymie the Indians in the second half, allowing just four points on one field goal and two free throws while forcing nine more turnovers.

Even when the Tribe beat the pressure and moved the ball past midcourt, the Olympians still caused problems.

“They stayed committed to it, and that was a big thing,” said McElmoyle of his team’s play on defense. “A lot of times when we were doing it before, those would have been layups. But we had five guys committing to stopping the ball, and we had guys rotating to protect the basket. So, even when they did beat it, we had somebody there standing in front of the basket to protect things.

“And when you have a guy like (6-5) Bryson (Heydt) there, your guys out top can also afford to gamble a little bit more.”

The victory, the second in as many nights, upped Thorpe’s record to 9-6 overall and evened its league mark at 4-4.

It also could give the OIympians a boost heading down the stretch.

“We’ve been such a roller-coaster team all year,” said McElmoyle. “We look good one game, and then the next game we don’t. With beating Roberto Clemente (Thursday) night and finally putting two games back-to-back, hopefully we can take the momentum and ride it. And hopefully it continues for more than two games.”

UP NEXT ... Thorpe hosts Tamaqua on Tuesday before traveling to Pine Grove Friday. Lehighton, now 3-13 overall and 0-8 in the league, plays the same two teams on opposite days - Pine Grove on Tuesday and Tamaqua on Friday.

UNSUNG PLAYERS ... While McElmoyle touted Herron’s big scoring night, he also credited some of his other starters. “We had guys step up tonight. Derryl (Fisher) distributed the ball well, and Colby’s been playing tough for us all year. He and David (Richards) do all the little things that don’t go in the stat book as far as setting screens and rebounding. It was a complete team effort tonight, and I thought everybody played their role to the best of their ability.”

LEHIGHTON

Hawk 0-0-0-0, Rehrig 0-0-0-0, Porambo 0-0-0-0, Lorenz 2-0-0-4, Blauch 1-1-2-3, Johnson 0-0-0-0, Lutz 1-2-5-4, Smith 0-0-0-0, Costenbader 0-0-0-0, Bastone 0-0-0-0, Roth 0-2-2-2, Schatz 0-1-2-1, Serfass 0-0-0-0, Hoke 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 4-6-11-14.

JIM THORPE

Herron 7-7-9-21, Richards 0-0-1-0, C. McHugh 3-0-0-7, Fisher 2-3-5-7, DiSanto 1-0-1-3, Spruill 2-0-0-5, Craigie 0-0-0-0, Selby 2-0-0-5, Heydt 2-0-2-4, B. McHugh 1-0-0-2, Berger 1-0-0-3. TOTALS: 21-10-18-57.

Lehighton 7 3 1 3 - 14

Jim Thorpe 14 26 5 12 - 57

Three-pointers: L - None; JT - C. McHugh 1, DiSanto 1, Spruill 1, Selby 1, Berger 1.