POTTSVILLE – It wasn’t a great night at the Mecca for Tamaqua.

The Raiders’ boys basketball team is in the midst of one of its best season in recent memory and had won four of its last five games entering Wednesday’s contest at Martz Hall.

But the Crimson Tide has the reputation under coach Dave Mullaney of being the premier defensive team in the Schuylkill League. They displayed that last night, rolling to a 60-30 victory.

The Raiders felt trouble brewing after eight minutes, when they were held without a point and misfired on all seven attempts from the field.

Although Pottsville wasn’t ablaze either, it managed to build a 9-0 first quarter lead.

The sluggish offense quickly turned around for the Tide as they put together terrific back-to-back quarters. In fact, in the third, Pottsville was a blistering 10-for-13 from the floor as they built a commanding 50-22 lead.

“They don’t back down, they just keep coming after you and if you can’t handle that pressure you’re in for a lot of trouble,” said Tamaqua coach Jim Barron.

The Pottsville defensive game plan centered on shutting down Tamaqua’s leading scorer Thad Zuber.

“We put Eli Wood on Thad because he is such a great player,” said Pottsville’s Mullaney. “We wanted to stop their offense by putting Eli on Thad. He makes them go.”

Barron knew it was coming.

“Eli Wood is such a tremendous defender and we couldn’t beat his pressure,” said Barron. “It’s just the way they play defense. If they do make a mistake on the ball, they have people to defend behind them.”

Pottsville (10-3, 7-1) was led by superb sophomore guard Mason Barnes who dropped in 22 points, shooting 10-for-14 from the floor and nailing a pair of triples. Wood added 14 points and 6-4 sophomore Kevin Schenk chipped in 11 points.

Meanwhile, Tamaqua (12-4, 5-3) was led by Zuber’s nine points.

TOUGH FLOOR NIGHT

… Tamaqua managed just 34 total shots and made good on 13 (38 percent), while committing 21 turnovers. Pottsville shot 29-for-56 (52 percent) from the floor and had a 30-19 edge in rebounding.

SHORTHANDED ... The Tide’s dominant performance came with their best player sidelined as 6-8 Ian Renninger was out with a foot injury.

PRELIM … Pottsville claimed the JV contest, 49-33. Devon Zehner had scoring honors for Tamaqua with 14.

TAMAQUA

Zuber 4-1-1-9, Knoblauch 2-0-0-5, Boyle 2-0-0-4, Zehner 2-0-0-4, G. Gregoire 1-2-3-4, L. Gregoire 1-0-0-2, Stauffenberg 1-0-0-2, Kurek 0-0-1-0, Bonetsky 0-0-0-0, Stianche 0-0-0-0, Griffin 0-0-0-0, Mateyak 0-0-2-0, Rother 0-0-0-0, Agosti 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 13-3-7-30.

POTTSVILLE

Barnes 10-0-1-22, Wood 7-0-0-14, Schenk 5-2-2-11, A. Stanton 3-0-0-8, Dicello 2-0-0-4, Hahner 1-0-0-2, Nabholtz 1-0-0-2, Sherakas 0-0-0-0, R. Stanton 0-0-0-0, McCord 0-0-0-0, Tobin 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 29-2-3-63.

Tamaqua 0 9 13 8 - 30

Pottsville 9 19 22 13 – 63

Three-pointers: Tamaqua - Knoblauch 1. Pottsville - Barnes 2, A. Stanton 2, Schenk 1.