The Panther Valley gym exploded following Jim Thorpe's final basket on Thursday night.

The outcome had already been decided but when the Olympians' Rayan Green slammed home a monster alley-oop from a baseline inbound, it provided the perfect exclamation point.Green and his partner in the paint, Matt Elmore, were too much for the Panthers to handle around the rim during Thursday night's Schuylkill League battle.Both Olympian bigs' recorded double-doubles en route to a 61-48 win over Panther Valley."He works very hard, every practice we have five or six coaches pushing him," said Jim Thorpe head coach Jason McElmoyle of Green, who tallied 18 points and 15 boards. "He's a focal point of our offense and he's vocal on the court."He picks guys up, he talks to the guys and we feed off him. Even from last year to this year, he's really developed and he's focused on his game."Whatever Green didn't finish around the basket, it was Elmore who elevated around the glass to take care of business. Elmore paced the Olympians with a game-high 21 points (13 in first half) and 10 rebounds."He was phenomenal, especially in the first half. He's the reason why we weren't down by 20," explained McElmoyle. "He finished nice, cleaned up on the boards, and showed some nice baseline moves. When they were doubling Rayan. Matt stepped up and he did again tonight."Panther Valley cut the Thorpe deficit to just six points at one point in the third quarter. But, extra Olympian opportunities kept the Panthers at arms' length for a majority of the game."I think we had five offensive boards the whole game," explained Panther Valley head coach Patrick Crampsie. "In the course of a basketball game, we'd have to shoot 70 percent if we want to compete in a game like that. They had a ton of second-chance shots too and we didn't and that's the game right there."Crampsie's Panthers played their best basketball during a sequence in the final period. The Panthers went on an encouraging 8-0 run thanks to some stifling Sam Stanko defense, gritty offense from Nate Miller, and sharpshooting from Anthony Micholik, who recorded a trio of three-pointers in the second half."Those three guys play with so much energy," explained Crampsie. "Our older guys have been great this year. Our seniors and our experienced guys come to play every night and are really focused. When you don't have as many wins as you'd hope at this time of the year, it could be a drag - but it's definitely not a drag with this group of guys and that's because of their leadership."Jim Thorpe answered the call after the PV spurt with a 10-2 run of its own, which put the game out of reach with limited time remaining. The Olympians responded abruptly after every Panther Valley threat during the contest.GOTTA DO WHAT YA GOTTA DO … PV's Nate Miller scored all of his 13 points in the final two periods. "Nate does whatever you ask him to do. In the second half we said that we needed to be more aggressive offensively," said Crampsie. "It's not really his game, but he took it upon himself to be aggressive on the offensive end. He is a fantastic teammate and he has a great motor."YOU CAN'T TEACH HEIGHT… Green and Elmore combined for 14 of Jim Thorpe's 17 rebounds during the first half. "We tried to use our size against them. I don't think we executed that well in the first half, but Panther Valley had a great game plan," said McElmoyle.NO PASSING ZONE… Oddly enough, there were not one, but two separate lane violations during foul shots on Thursday night.JIM THORPECarroll 1-1-3-4, Elmore 8-5-9-21, Micciche 4-2-2-10, Jefferson 1-0-0-2, Green 9-0-0-18, Lauer 2-0-0-6, Twardzik 0-0-0-0, Joyce 0-0-0-0, McElmoyle 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 25-8-14-61.PANTHER VALLEYFigueroa 1-0-1-2, Stanko 0-0-1-0, Micholik 5-0-0-14, Miller 4-3-4-13, Hudicka 2-1-2-6, Blasko 6-1-1-13, Emmert 0-0-0-0, Morgans 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 18-5-9-48Jim Thorpe 11 16 17 17 - 61Panther Valley 8 10 12 18 - 48Three-pointers: JT - Carroll 1, Lauer 2; PV - Micholik 4, Miller 2, Hudicka 1.