Jim Thorpe came into a pivotal non-league game with Marian right before the Christmas break, struggling from the free throw line.

Thorpe’s struggles in that department have been a key contributor to some narrow losses on the young season.

But the Olympians found something from the charity stripe on Wednesday night, hitting clutch foul shots late in the fourth quarter to edge the Colts, 42-35, and run their win streak to three games.

Thorpe was playing from behind the eight ball in the first half as it trailed by six after the first, and three at the half. Frank Valente got the Colts offense going early, scoring 15 of his 17 points in the first half, including 12 in the first quarter.

The Olympians, who turned it over six times in the first quarter, were then able to flip that ratio in the second frame, forcing seven Marian turnovers. But despite that, the Colts were still able hold a slight 21-18 advantage at the intermission.

Marian’s turnover woes in the second quarter served as a sign of things to come, however.

“In the first quarter, we came out and executed our game plan. Our guys came out and played really hard,” said Marian coach Scott Murphy. “I thought we also moved the ball well against their 3-2 and we were able to be effective, especially in attacking the baseline.

“But when they switched up to some three-quarter court pressure, that bothered us a little bit and we started to turn the ball over. That got them rolling and their guys started to attack the basket and play hard, so credit to them.”

Six more Marian turnovers in the third period fueled the Olympians’ comeback efforts even further, as Jim Thorpe was able to take its first lead of the game (25-23) at the 2:51 mark of the quarter off an Andrew Warner deuce. The Colts defense struggled to stay in front of Warner throughout the game, and his nine points in the third quarter helped JT go into the final period with a 27-26 lead.

“Defensively, we really picked it up. We did a better job of finding and closing out on their shooters,” said Jim Thorpe coach Jason McElmoyle. “I thought we made some good adjustments, and we held their leading scorer (Julius Currie) to zero points, so the defensive effort was really good,

“Then Andrew Warner, who is such a good kid, put the team on his shoulders tonight. We had some trouble scoring in the game, and he came out and was able to put a bunch of points on the board for us.”

With the game knotted at 31-31, Thorpe would make its move to capture the lead once and for all.

Kendall Herron completed a three-point play in transition with 4:05 remaining in the fourth to make it 34-31. Two more clutch scores - one by Herron and one by Warner - coupled with key defensive stops gave Thorpe control. Thorpe then closed out the game at the free throw line, as Josh Spruill and Herron combined to go 4-for-4 from the stripe to seal the deal.

“We finally started to hit some foul shots at the end there, which is always important. If you look at some of our close losses to teams like Mahanoy Area and Lehighton, our poor shooting from the foul line had an impact on those outcomes,” said McElmoyle. “I think we’re starting to get going now a bit. We finally have everyone together now. We have (Noah) Rosahac back, and as a team we had guys sick and missing practices the first few weeks. But now we a lot of positives to work with heading into a little bit of a break.”

THREE STRAIGHT … After losing its first five games. Thorpe (3-5) defeated Western Wayne, Tamaqua and Marian in the past week.

STAT SHEET … Warner scored a game-high 19 points for JT, with 15 coming in the second half. Spruill finished with nine points. Rosahac pulled down 10 rebounds for Thorpe. For Marian (2-4), Valente led the way with 17 points and Chris Chambers added 10.

MARIAN

Ramirez 1-0-0-2, Miller 0-0-0-0, Chambers 4-0-0-10, Je. Rodino 2-1-2-5, Walko 0-1-4-1, Currie 0-0-0-0, Valente 7-1-1-17, Ja. Rodino 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 14-3-7-35.

JIM THORPE

Herron 2-4-7-8, Spruill 2-5-7-9, Warner 8-3-5-19, DiSanto 0-0-0-0, Barile 1-0-0-3, Rosahac 1-1-3-3, Heydt 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 14-13-22-42.

Marian 13 8 5 9 - 35

Jim Thorpe 6 12 9 15 - 42

Three-pointers: Marian - Chambers 2, Valente 2; JT - Barile 1.