It was the classic story of a tale of two halves on Thursday between Schuylkill League Division 1 rivals Panther Valley and Lehighton.

The Panthers controlled the first half with their screen-and-roll scheme and aggressiveness attacking the rim, but an enormous Indians run in the second half blew the game wide open in the Tribe’s favor as they came away with a key league road win over PV, 68-53.

“There’s one thing that I can always count on with this crew, and that is they will never pack it in,” said Lehighton head coach Trevor Miller. “As bad as that first half was for us, and with our struggles shooting the ball, we still stuck with it.

“We did a good job of finishing the second quarter strong, cutting their lead down to six or seven, getting back within striking distance, and then we were able to make some adjustments at the half.”

It looked like it was going to go the Panthers way early on as they got off to a good start thanks to the strong play of big man Logan Fisher in the first quarter.

Fisher scored seven points for PV in the first, catching and finishing off numerous screen-and-roll opportunities, as the Panthers would hold a 14-13 lead after one.

Again, Panther Valley looked good in the second quarter as it would outscore Lehighton 19-13 in the frame - leading by as many as 11 - and went into the half with a seven-point advantage (33-26).

Connor Penberth led PV with eight points in the quarter off two triples and a deuce, which all came on three consecutive possessions.

Lehighton shot just 8-for-25 from the field in the first half, and turned it over nine times.

“In that first half, we were dialed in, and we were focused, and you could see we were still feeding off the momentum from our win on Monday night,” said Panther Valley head coach Pat Crampsie. “We also were able to execute on offense and get the looks that we wanted, and then on defense we were able to force them to take the kind of shots we were hoping for them to take, which was a lot of contested jumpers and keeping them away from the basket for the most part.

“Second half was the polar opposite. Credit to them, they dug in their heels and played physical and (Blake) Roberts and (Joe) Roth went to work. Also, I don’t think we were as aggressive either in the second half, attacking downhill, and some of our bad offensive possessions led to bad defensive possessions on the other end.”

The Indians started to shift momentum right at the start of the third, going on a 5-0 run to get back within two off a three from Cole Dietz and a bucket inside from Roth. PV was able to keep its head above water for a majority of the third until a 10-0 run late in the quarter by Lehighton would give them control.

Trailing 42-37, a three from Owen Serfass would start the Tribe run, followed by a three-point play off a drive by Dietz, a deuce from Roth and a step-back jumper by Roberts at the horn. The big run would give the Indians a 47-42 advantage after three.

“We were able to adjust some of our match-ups, and we also adjusted how we were guarding the screen and roll,” said Miller. “We were able to go under the screen and then have a helper waiting in the middle, and that turned the game around for us.

“Also, offensively, we came out and scored 42 points in the second half. Anytime you’re scoring 40-plus points in a half, you’re going to have a good chance to win the game. Joe Roth over the last two weeks has taken his game to new heights, and he has done a phenomenal job of scoring in the paint and finishing at the rim. He was huge for us tonight.”

The Indians’ offense continued to stay in rhythm to start the fourth, going on an 11-0 spurt to extend their lead to 58-42 - which capped off a 21-0 run since they trailed by five around the two-minute mark of the third quarter. Roth led Lehighton with 10 in the fourth.

PV wouldn’t get its first point of the fourth until about midway through the quarter, which ended nearly an eight-minute scoring drought. The Indians finished the game on a 31-9 run.

ROTH TO THE RIM … PV didn’t have an answer for Roth in the paint, especially in the second half where he scored 16 of his game-high 28 points. Roth shot an incredible 11-for-14 from the field.

LEADING SCORERS … Helping out Roth was Roberts, who scored 17 points. Dietz added 13. For PV, Fisher led the way with 13 and Chase Weaver added 10.

WHERE THEY STAND … With the win, Lehighton improved to 10-4 overall and 3-4 in league play. The Panthers fell to 7-5 and 3-4.

LEHIGHTON

Serfoss 2 1-2 6, Light 2 0-0 4, Johnson 0 0-0 0, Roberts 8 0-0 17, Roth 11 6-7 28, Dietz 4 3-3 13. TOTALS: 27 10-12 68.

PANTHER VALLEY

Kokinda 3 1-3 8, Weaver 4 1-2 10, Fisher 6 1-2 13, Penberth 3 0-0 8, Breiner 1 0-0 3, Hood 3 0-0 6, Buyce 1 0-0 3, Maynard 0 0-0 0, Goida 0 2-2 2. TOTALS: 21 5-9 53.

Lehighton 13 13 21 21 - 68

Panther Valley 14 19 19 11 - 53

Three-pointers: Lehighton - Dietz 2, Serfoss 1, Roberts 1; Panther Valley - Penberth 2, Kokinda 1, Weaver 1, Breiner 1, Buyce 1.