You have to take them to make them.

Lehighton blistered the nets from beyond the arc in the second and third quarters against Palmerton on Monday night, and the barrage of 3-pointers helped the Indians pull away for an impressive 73-51 Colonial League victory over the Bombers.

Palmerton came out swinging in the first quarter and gave Lehighton all it could handle, holding a 21-17 lead after one. The Bombers hit three triples in the opening frame, with Gaige McGowan knocking down two, and had five different players score in the quarter.

Lehighton also began to warm up from deep, as freshman point guard Aiden McCarroll buried the game’s opening 3-pointer and sharpshooter Cole Dietz connected twice from long range.

Palmerton opened the second quarter with a basket from Braylen Delgado to push its lead to six, but from that point on it was all Indians.

Lehighton responded with a 22-3 run to close the half. Dietz led the charge with 13 points in the quarter as the Tribe surged to a 39-27 halftime advantage.

“We’ve talked about this the last few days, and I didn’t think our guys were playing with as much confidence on the offensive end as we would like to see,” Lehighton coach Trevor Miller said. “We were able to get in the gym yesterday and get up a lot of shots, and I definitely think that helped. I think what you saw tonight was our guys shooting the ball with confidence and just playing with confidence.

“Both teams made a lot of shots early. Credit to Palmerton — they came out and hit some tough shots in that first quarter. But I was happy with how we responded, and we carried that momentum into the second half.”

The Indians firmly seized control in the third quarter, staying hot from deep and turning up the temperature even more. McCarroll once again opened the quarter with a 3-pointer, followed by a deep make from Blake Roberts.

Then it was Talin Fairchild’s turn to join the party.

Fairchild, who leads the team in 3-pointers made, drilled three of them in the third quarter, helping spark a 24-8 run that sent Lehighton into the fourth with a commanding 63-35 lead.

“When Fairchild is set, he’s as good as anybody shooting the three,” Miller said. “You saw that tonight. In the third quarter he got in a zone where the ball was barely hitting anything when it was going in — he was just dropping them right in. We rely on his shot to alleviate some of the scoring pressure from Dietz and Roberts, and tonight he shot it really well for us.”

Roberts put his physicality to work early in the fourth, scoring Lehighton’s first three baskets of the quarter as the game entered the mercy rule and the Indians closed out the Bombers for a 22-point win.

“They can get hot really fast, and they had that big momentum swing there in the second period,” Palmerton coach Joe Egan said. “Dietz is probably the best shooter in the area, and Fairchild is right there with him. I thought our guys battled, but we just ran out of gas.

“A bunch of our guys are still battling sickness, so we’re just trying to get healthy. But we’re going to keep working, and we’re going to keep fighting to get better.”

BOX SCORE ... Dietz and Roberts each finished with 21 points, Fairchild added 15, and Cameron Pengelly led Palmerton with 11.

FROM DEEP ... Lehighton knocked down 11 3-pointers. Dietz (4) and Fairchild (4) combined for eight of them.

MIDDLE QUARTERS ... The Indians exploded in the middle frames, outscoring the Bombers 46-14 in the second and third quarters.

PALMERTON

Jedrejczyk 0-1-2-1, Grammes 2-2-2-6, Pengelly 5-0-1-11, Gursky 2-0-0-6, Delgado 4-0-2-10, Buck 1-0-0-2, Pereira 1-0-2-2, McGowan 3-0-0-9, Stahler 2-0-0-4. TOTALS: 20-3-8-51.

LEHIGHTON

McCarroll 4-0-2-10, White 1-0-0-2, Meek 1-0-0-2, Fairchild 4-3-3-15, Roberts 9-2-3-21, Blair 1-0-0-2, Dietz 7-3-4-21. TOTALS: 27-8-11-73.

Lehighton 17 22 24 10 — 73

Palmerton 21 6 8 16 — 51

Three-pointers: Lehighton — Dietz 4, Fairchild 4, McCarroll 2, Roberts 1; Palmerton — McGowan 3, Gursky 2, Delgado 2, Pengelly 1.

Records: Lehighton (4-3); Palmerton (1-6)