HERSHEY It was a historical ride for Tamaqua's basketball team this winter, but the ride came to an unfortunate end Friday night.

The Blue Raiders, who were making their first appearance in the PIAA tournament in 20 years, battled and relished in the moment against a talented Steelton-Highspire squad, but didn't have enough firepower to overcome the Rollers during a 64-51 defeat.Caszy Kosciolek's squad gave the District III champs everything they could in the first quarter, but that's when the Rollers turned on the jets to essentially keep distance the rest of the way.Trailing 12-11 heading into the second period, Tamaqua felt good about themselves, but a 13-2 run by Steel-High to open the quarter ballooned the lead to 25-13 with 3:18 in the half and the Rollers never looked back."They amped it up in the second quarter," said Kosciolek. "We wanted to play slower and they wanted to speed us up and they did a good job of that. It's just one of those things when you're playing against a good basketball team. We just never quite rebounded from that."Steel-High (23-5) didn't present much size on the floor, playing only six men in their rotation, but they possessed plenty of team speed, which posed problems for Tamaqua, as they turned it over 10 times in the first half and 17 times in the game.The Blue Raiders were able to limit transition points for the most part on the night, but they gave up six three-pointers from distance and sent the Rollers to the line 27 times. Despite only converting 16 of those attempts, it demonstrated the pressure Steel-High was able to put on Tamaqa's defense with relentless drives to the hoop all night."We knew they were quick and we wanted to take away transition buckets," Kosciolek said. "I thought we did a pretty good job in our 2-3, but if you're sloppy at all with the ball, they're going to get it. They have great hands, but with their dribble penetration, we struggled at times getting out on the open man."Tamaqua also fell victim to buzzer-beating shots to end the second and third quarters, as Jaki Bowman filled a layup underneath traffic to give the Rollers a 31-21 lead heading into the half.Malachi Young (12 points) then drilled a desperation three with a hand in his face to end the third quarter, giving Steel-High their largest lead of the game at 49-34.Brett Kosciolek led Tamaqua with 25 points, converting nine field goals, but only one three-pointer, as the Blue Raiders struggled from distance, converting only three triples on the night.A pair of Bo Rottet (18 points) free throws cut the lead to 51-41 with 5:38 left in the game to prompt a Roller timeout, which coincidentally saw them roll off eight straight points to push their cushion back to 59-41 after free throws by Jaqui Jenkins (14 points) to lead his team in scoring.The Rollers had four players in double-digits, as Kavon Jackson (12 points) and Jaron Grayer (10 points) helped round out the scoring.."I can't say enough about these kids," he said. "They battled all night and it's just a really hard group to let go. I've been with them since CYO, little league and junior high. If you look at this class, in football, basketball and baseball, I don't know if there's a class that's played in more postseason games. I'm so fortunate to have been able to coach this group. If you don't get emotional when it's over, than it wasn't worth a whole lot. The sun will come up tomorrow and we'll celebrate what these guys have accomplished."TAMAQUASkripko 0-2-2-2, Miller 0-0-0-0, Rottet 6-4-6-18, Zuber 1-0-0-2, MacDonald 2-0-2-4, Kosciolek 9-6-6-25. TOTALS: 18-12-16-51.STEEL-HIGHBowman 3-2-2-9, Fleming 1-5-10-7, Grayer 5-0-1-10, Jackson 4-3-6-12, Jenkins 3-6-8-14, Young 5-0-0-12. TOTALS: 21-16-27-64.Tamaqua 11 10 13 17 - 51Steel-High 12 19 15 18 - 64Three pointers: Tamaqua - Rottet 2, Kosciolek 1; Steel-High - Jenkins 2, Young 2, Jackson 1, Bowman 1.