This season has been a series of ups and downs for Jim Thorpe boys' basketball, featuring flashes of brilliance, followed by dry spells.

Head coach Jason McElmoyle is aware of his squad's consistently inconsistent play, as the Olympians matched two strong frames of play with two sub-par periods against Blue Mountain in a 65-44 Schuylkill League loss last night.The Eagles (7-1 overall, 4-0 league) utilized a press break that yielded several fast break conversions for easy points to nab an early lead."As far as the game went, it was either we took care of the ball or we didn't take care of the ball," Blue Mountain head coach Dustin Werdt said. "Their pressure affected us a bit and that's when they went on their run."The locals trailed 14-4 after one frame and eventually faced a 25-6 deficit with 3:43 left in the first half. Up until that point, Thorpe was getting decent looks at the basket, but failed to convert."It just seems to be the same problem," McElmoyle said. "We have good points and bad points in games. We weren't making shots and there's very little consistency."Justin Marykwas drilled a trey, Andre Samuel drove for two, Marykwas converted a lay-up off a steal, and Chris Micciche took a Samuel feed for two to cut it to 25-15 with just over two minutes remaining in the first half."Their press was a little different than we had anticipated," Werdt said. "They came out in full-court man pressure and they trapped us out of that, which is something we don't typically see every day."Another Marykwas triple was sandwiched between two lay-ups by the Eagles to produce a 29-18 halftime score."If we took care of the ball, offensively, we got some good shots," Werdt said. "If we broke that pressure, we could get lay-ups."If not for JT's poor shooting in the first half (8-29), the game's outcome would differ. However, the Olympians maintained momentum into the third frame, adding another scoring run. Six straight turnovers by the Eagles helped produce a 10-2 run to begin the second half, and Samuel's fast break lay-up with 4:53 remaining in the third made it 31-28.After a Blue Mountain time out, the winners produced with a Drew Grace lay-up, followed by a four-point play by Aaron Albertini, and the Eagles pushed their advantage to 38-28. Minutes later, Albertini's trey closed out the third with the winners leading 43-34.A Micciche turn-around in the lane cut the lead to seven, but that was as close as the locals could get, as Blue Mountain iced the victory by closing out the game on a 22-8 run."The kids exert so much energy in trying to come back from those deficits that we have nothing left in the tank to finish," McElmoyle reflected. "I think we played hard and we got good shots, but too inconsistent."ROUNDING IT OUT... The winners, who shot 24-for-49 from the field (49 percent), received 20 points from Mason Zerbe, along with 15 from Albertini. Thorpe finished 19-for-58 (33 percent) from the floor and saw Marykwas total 10, while Matt Elmore and Micciche each added eight.WHAT A FINISH?!?!?... The JV game proved to be a thriller, as Nate Rosahac's free throw with three ticks left helped the Olympians improve to 8-1 with a 43-42 win.BLUE MOUNTAINConway 0-0-0-0, O'Donnell 0-0-0-0, McKivigan 0-0-0-0, Welsh 2-0-0-5, Lewis 0-3-4-3, Grace 3-2-2-9, Albertini 5-3-4-15, Zerbe 8-4-4-20, Caulfield 2-1-2-5, Nabholz 1-0-0-2, O'Keefe 0-0-0-0, Hoynoski 1-0-0-2, Biever 2-0-0-4. TOTALS: 24-13-16-65.JIM THORPECarroll 1-0-0-2, Samuel 3-0-0-6, Elmore 4-0-0-8, Micciche 3-2-4-8, Burkhart 0-0-0-0, Searfoss 2-0-0-5, Swartz 0-0-0-0, Joyce 0-0-0-0, Valdez 0-0-0-0, Foreman 0-0-0-0, Marykwas 4-0-0-10, Na. Rosahac 0-1-2-1, Ni. Rosahac 1-0-0-2, Burak 1-0-1-2, Scott 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 19-3-7-44.Blue Mountain 14 15 14 22 - 65Jim Thorpe 4 14 16 10 - 44Three pointers: BM - Albertini 2, Grace 1, Welsh 1; JT - Marykwas 2, Searfoss 1.