So far it has been a grand holiday break for the Lehighton girls basketball team.

It could be a better one after this evening.

The underdog Tribe threw up a big roadblock on favored Whitehall using stingy defense and a great offensive game plan to flatten the Zephyrs 43-24, on Thursday.

The win sends the tournament hosts to face Northern Lehigh in tonight’s title game. The Bulldogs defeated Pleasant Valley in the opener of this doubleheader 54-43.

Indians whooped it up

Whitehall had a sizable advantage in the height department. Lehighton just stayed with the game plan, said its head coach Joe Berezwick.

“Our kids did a very good job of executing,” he said. “It was two different leagues, us from the (Schuylkill League) and them from the EPC (Eastern Pennsylvania Conference). They wanted to play their tempo, but we wanted to play ours.”

The Indians’ tempo won out over the Zephyrs’ tempo, mainly because Lehighton kept hustling to the ball, grabbing rebounds, finding the open space and spotting an open player. In other words, the Tribe was extremely unselfish.

There was balance for sure up and down the lineup, led by Ryleigh Trotman who knocked down 11 points, floor general Charli McHugh hummed the twines with 10 points, and unsung Emma Repsher floated home 9 points.

But the big area came in the rebounding department. Despite giving up to 2-3 inches in size, Lehighton out-rebounded the Zephyrs 43-33. Shining brightly were Trotman and McHugh, each with 10, Timara Klotz came off the bench to grab a half-dozen, equaling Repsher.

“That’s impressive,” Berezwick said when told about his team’s performance off the glass. “I attribute that to our kids carrying out the game plan. They put themselves in position to make those plays.”

It was a feeling-out process for sure in the first and second quarters. Lehighton snuck out to a 6-4 lead after eight minutes, before letting loose with a flurry of points midway through the second quarter.

The Tribe broke free from an 8-6 score going on an 11-5 run, led by McHugh, who tossed in six points in the period, and Trotman with five, though Whitehall dug in to close the gap to 21-16 at the halfway point.

“Our pace was where we wanted to get to,” Berezwick said. “They want the (half court) game; that’s the style they play in their league. We wanted to play like we do in our league.”

And that surfaced in a big way to open the third quarter. Lehighton guards kept driving to the iron, and kept finding Trotman, who dropped in 13 of her 19 points in the second half.

The Tribe went on a 9-3 run to take a 32-21 lead into the fourth quarter. Lehighton wasn’t playing just offense. It nearly shutout Whitehall in the fourth period, save for a triple from Lleneyda Otanez, which came with 89 seconds to play in the game.

Meanwhile, the Tribe set the speedometer on cruise control with a commanding 42-21 lead to earn a spot in tonight’s finals.

Lady Bulldogs surge

Northern Lehigh head coach Chris Heery didn’t know what to think of his youthful band of warriors before taking the reigns early in the second half to breeze past the Bears in the opening game of this fourth annual tournament.

“I’m not sure where we are at just yet,” Heery said before the game. “We’re young. We still are finding our way. But I like this team right now.”

Indeed he should.

The Bulldogs used a late charge in the second quarter, then carried the momentum over to open the third to roll to their fourth win in nine starts.

Northern Lehigh turned to the sensational play of senior Aubrey Pollard, who scored 24 points, junior Katelyn Barthold with 14 points and freshman Teegan Simms, who dropped in 11.

“We challenged our kids at halftime, because that first half wasn’t our best we (could play),” Heery said. “We had 10 turnovers in the first quarter.”

But that all got wiped out by the time the third quarter rolled around. The Bulldogs were blistering on all phases of the game. They shot lights out, going 8-for-16. They committed all of two turnovers, and picked off 15 of their 41 rebounds in the period.

Pollard, who finished with a game-high 16 of those rebounds, had 10 in the frame, but the big noise was coming from first-year player Simms who collared 11 rebounds, four in the deciding third quarter.

The Bulldogs, who were clinging to a scant 16-15 lead after a half, pressed the issue big time on the Bears with a 14-0 run to doom Pleasant Valley at that point. Simms and Pollard were doing the damage, each with four points in the runoff.

Pleasant Valley certainly had a hope at the start. The Bears, who were led by Aryn Stivala with 20 points, and 11 from the hand of Katelyn Honade, were zipping to a 10-5 lead after a period, and were far from out of it when Stivala and Honadel both dropped in baskets for a 15-11 lead late in the second quarter.

Pleasant Valley seemed to regroup when Stivala drilled home two straight triples to close the gap 36-29 to open the stretch run.

But Northern Lehigh just staid the course, keeping Pleasant Valley at arm’s length.

NORTHERN LEHIGH

Pollard 10-4-6-24, K. Barthold 7-0-0-14, Simms 4-1-2-11, D. Barthold 1-1-2-3, Williams 1-0-0-2. TOTALS: 23-6-10-54.

PLEASANT VALLEY

Stivala 8-1-1-20, Honade; 3-2-2-11, Rosenberg 3-0-0-7, Lonigan 1-0-0-2, Polazzo 1-0-0-2, Costen 0-1-2-1. TOTALS: 16-4-5-43.

No. Lehigh 5 11 20 18 - 54

Pleasant Valley 10 5 8 19 - 42

Three-pointers: Northern Lehigh - Simms 2; Pleasant Valley - Stivala 3, Hanadel 3, Rosenberg 1.

WHITEHALL

Bordner 3-0-0-7, Dunbar 2-0-0-5, Spooner 2-0-0-4, Otanez 1-0-0-3, Kneller 1-0-0-3, Bynoe 0-1-2-1. TOTALS: 9-2-6-24.

LEHIGHTON

Trotman 8-1-2-19, McHugh 3-4-4-13 E. Repsher 4-1-2-9, Uyvari 1-1-3-3, Klotz 1-0-0-2. TOTALS: 17-7-11-43.

Whitehall 4 12 5 3 - 24

Lehighton 6 15 11 11 - 43

Three-pointers: Whitehall - Bordner 1, Otanez 1, Kneller 1; Lehighton - McHugh 2, Trotman 1.