Jim Thorpe’s boys basketball team is close to breaking through.

The Olympians won five games a season ago under first-year head coach Brian O’Donnell after he took over a program that won just one game during the 2023-24 season.

Coming into its matchup with Southern Lehigh on Thursday, Thorpe was already at the seven-win mark 12 games in, and a victory over a surging Spartans team would be huge for the Olympians postseason hopes.

A hot start from Thorpe put it in position to do just that, leading 17-7 after one, but the Thorpe offense would go cold the rest of the way and the Spartans battled back for a 42-39 Colonial League comeback victory.

The Olympians (7-6) came out firing on all cylinders in the first quarter. Thorpe shot 8-for-11 in the first, while its zone defense gave the Southern Lehigh offense some fits. The Spartans shot 1-for-12, and 1-for-11 from beyond the arc.

Pierce Gothard had a big first for JT, scoring 11 points. Southern Lehigh didn’t hit its first field goal of the game — a three from Morgan Capuano — until the 2:48 mark of the first.

“We shot the ball very well. And defensively, I thought we came out and played with intensity. And switching up our defense from a 3-2 to a 2-3 to a 1-3-1 gave them some issues, I think, as well,” said Jim Thorpe coach Brian O’Donnell.

“Our defense definitely fed our offense and you could see our guys were playing with confidence, and they were able to get good looks on the offensive side floor and they were knocking down shots.”

Thorpe continued to play in rhythm at the start of the second, extending its lead to 22-7 around the six-minute mark after a deuce and a three from Brody Schrantz.

The Olympians continued to stay in front by double digits until Southern Lehigh made a defensive adjustment, switching from a man defense to a 1-2-2 zone look. That’s when the Spartans started to chip away.

A 10-0 run by Southern Lehigh to end the second cut the JT lead down to four heading into halftime. The Spartans hit three triples in the quarter and shot much better from the field, going 5-for-9 in the frame. Five different Spartans scored in the second.

“We went to the 1-2-2 zone in the second quarter, and I thought that really slowed them down. We started out in man, and they have two scorers that can make some tough shots, and that’s what they were able to do against our man defense early,” said SL coach John Arcidiacono.

“When we went to the zone, it slowed down the game a little bit and we could focus more on attacking their zone, getting more paint touches, and drive and kick looks. I thought we settled for too many three-pointers early, which is very easy to do against a zone, but once we started attacking the gaps and driving and kicking, that’s when our fortunes started to change.”

The Spartans tied the game at 26-26 with 6:05 to play in the third, extending their run to 14-0.

The game continued to stay tight throughout the third, with Southern Lehigh holding a 33-32 advantage going into the fourth.

The Spartans held a slim advantage for most of the fourth, and led 38-36 lead with 3:03 to play when a Cole Lazorick swish from the left corner gave the Olympians a one-point edge with 2:51 to go.

Thorpe held that lead until 34.3 seconds left to play when the Southern Lehigh defense came up with the play of the game.

Causing chaos and running traps at the Thorpe ball handlers, Spartans’ guard Jack Fistner deflected a pass, secured the ball and went coast-to-coast to put the Spartans up one.

“We knew who their guys were that they were probably going to go to late, and we told our guys in the timeout to just key on them and be aware of where those guys were,” said Arcidiacono. “When their guy drove, we had great help defense, we took the ball away and got the score, which ended up being the play of the game.”

The Southern Lehigh defense dug in again, forcing another turnover with under eight seconds remaining to escape Olympian Way with the three-point win.

“I thought we got some good looks after our big first quarter, but we just couldn’t get anything to fall; just couldn’t buy a bucket,” said O’Donnell. “Late in the game, we just needed to play with some more confidence.

“But that’s a really good team we battled with tonight. They play 9-10 guys, and they can all shoot it pretty well. We just need to keep working, and if things go south for a quarter or two we need to fight through that and find a way to knock down some shots.”

LEADING SCORERS … Michael Fry and Adam Watts led the way for Southern Lehigh with 10 points apiece. Gothard scored a game-high 19 for JT, and Schrantz added 13.

COLD AS ICE … Thorpe went cold in the second and third quarters. JT missed its last six shots of the second, and its first six shots of the third.

GAME OF RUNS … Thorpe led 17-7 after one, but from quarters two through four, the Spartans outscored the Olympians 35-22.

SOUTHERN LEHIGH

G. Ruggeri 0-0-0-0, Capuano 3-0-0-8, Plessl 1-2-2-5, Fistner 4-0-0-9, Helms 0-0-0-0, Spigelmyer 0-0-0-0, Fry 3-2-2-10, Adams 3-4-4-10. TOTALS: 14-8-8-42.

JIM THORPE

Antignani 0-0-0-0, P. Gothard 8-3-3-19, Kiehl 0-0-0-0. Lazorick 3-0-0-7, Schrantz 6-0-0-13, Moore 0-0-0-0, Hodor 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 17-3-3-39.

Southern Lehigh 7 15 11 9 - 42

Jim Thorpe 17 9 6 7 - 39

Three-pointers: SL - Capuano 2, Fry 2, Plessl 1, Fistner 1; Jim Thorpe - Lazorick 1, Schrantz 1.

Records: Southern Lehigh (9-3; 6-3); Jim Thorpe (7-6; 6-4).