Lehighton cruised to a 69-36 victory over Northern Lehigh in the Slatington Rotary tournament title game on Thursday.

A 21-point Lehighton second quarter allowed the Indians to pull away from the Bulldogs, followed by a 22-point third quarter to lead by 30 at the end of the quarter.

“I thought tonight we came out a little bit slow,” Lehighton head coach Trevor Miller said. “Overall, I was pretty happy with the way we responded to it, especially in that second quarter. That dictated the rest of the game. We turned up the tempo with our 1-3-1, and from there it took off for us. Our defense led to the offense. We scored 69 points, but to be honest, a lot of it was off of defensive turnovers and us turning that tempo up.”

Lehighton junior Joe Roth scored 20 points in both contests, and was the Most Valuable Player of the tournament. Roth was able to turn up the wick when Lehighton (8-3) put up 43 points in the second and third quarters.

“It’s not just me, it’s my teammates,” Roth said. “They’ve helped me a lot in these two games and if it wasn’t for them, this wouldn’t be possible. I got to give a shout-out to them. The season’s been pretty good, a lot better than last year. We have improved.”

Owen Serfass hit four three-pointers for the Indians and tallied 14 points in the title game. Sophomore Cole Dietz put up 10 points after a 20-point night against Bethlehem Christian.

“We had three guys in double-digits and when you can do that, it’s a key to success,” Miller said. “A total team effort tonight. I’m proud of what we did.”

Blake Roberts was the fourth double-digit scorer for the Indians with 10 points.

After scoring 75 points Wednesday night, the Bulldogs had a tough time making shots against the Lehighton defense. Freshman Kellen Bauer scored a team-high 13 points, averaging 17.5 points in the two games and getting recognized a part of the Slatington Rotary Tournament All-Star team. Teammate Connor Sims joined Bauer for the recognition for tournament host Northern Lehigh.

“It was their half-court trap that just killed us,” Northern Lehigh head coach Robert Fahler Jr. said. “I did a horrible job. That’s a coaching job to be able to beat the trap. We had really most of the trips in the second quarter through the rest of the time they had their starters in. We didn’t really get shots because we turned it over.”

Lehighton’s Cole Dietz, Gabe Transue and Amari Williams from Bethlehem Christian also received honors. Bethlehem Christian beat Jim Thorpe 44-43 in Thursday’s consolation game, and Ben Goldberg had 10 for the Olympians.

ONE YEAR TO GO ... Lehighton junior Joe Roth averaged 20 points in the two games during the tournament, and has more one year to go on an improved Indians team. “Next year, just going to chill out and do what I do,” he said.

A TALE OF TWO NIGHTS ... Northern Lehigh scored a season-high 75 points against Jim Thorpe Wednesday night, and had a tough time getting going against Lehighton with 36 points. The Bulldogs are now 2-8 on the season before a stretch of playing Colonial League opponents.

LEHIGHTON

Serfass 4-2-2-14, Light 1-0-0-3, Hawk 1-0-0-3, Johnson 2-0-0-4, Roberts 4-0-0-10, Roth 10-0-0-20, Dietz 2-5-5-10, Acosta-Rodriguez 1-1-1-3. TOTALS: 28-8-8-69.

NORTHERN LEHIGH

Simms 5-1-2-12, Smith 0-0-0-0, Bauer 4-2-2-13, Buskirk 3-2-2-8, Salid 1-1-3-3. TOTALS: 13-6-9-36

Lehighton 14 21 22 12 - 69

No. Lehigh 12 5 12 7 - 36

Three-pointers: Lehighton - Serfass 4, Roberts 2, Dietz 1, Hawk 1, Light 1; Northern Lehigh - Bauer 3, Simms 1.