With just over three minutes remaining in regulation of last night's Blue Mountain-Jim Thorpe girls' basketball game, the Lady Olympians' Kayley Kovac seemed to 'flip a switch.' The determination read plain on her face, as she seemed to lead her team all the way back from the deficit, to tie the game at 44-44 and send it points into overtime. During that stretch, the 'fab frosh' reeled off 14 of her team's 15, snared more than enough rebounds and nearly single-handedly gave her team a chance to win the contest.

In the overtime session, however, Blue Mountain connected on just enough free throws to pull out the 51-49 win over Jim Thorpe, pushing the Olympians (9-11), into a do-or-die situation.With the demise, the locals will need to win their remaining two games, including a tough road trip to Pottsville."This kind of stings now," Jim Thorpe head coach Rob Kovac admitted. "We're trying to make district playoffs and we needed to win two out of our last three. When one of those games is to go into Pottsville and try to win, it's an unenviable task. So, to be this close tonight, it stings."Early on, both sides struggled through the first period, before the hosts took a 4-2 lead. Blue Mountain's Abby Fanelli took over in the second, however, as she rattled off 14 points to give the Lady Eagles a 20-12 advantage at the break.Kovac's seven in the third allowed the Lady Olympians to creep back into it, as they trimmed the deficit to 28-24 after three.To begin the fourth, the Eagles went on a 13-5 run, as five different players scored points in the spree. However, that was when Kovac and the rest of the youthful Olympians picked up the intensity, incorporated a full-court press, and thrived, as a 10-0 run cut the lead to 41-39 with 1:34 left.Three Blue Mountain free throws were countered by a Kovac lay-up and foul shot, yielding a 44-42 edge for the Eagles.After maneuvering the ball up-court, Kovac and drove towards the right baseline, where she found room and floated in a lay-up over a defender for the game-tying shot with ten seconds left."(Jim Thorpe) is to be commended for the way they fought down the stretch," Blue Mountain head coach Ruth Weidman said. "They took us to the brink, essentially, and we were able to withstand it. We may have held on with our fingertips, but we held on."Thorpe rolled with the momentum to begin the extra period, as it went up 47-44. But that's when the Blue Mountain guards converted by drawing fouls and making their free throws, as they connected on five of eight to earn the big victory."I'm proud of our girls for the way they dug deep," Weidman continued. "We had two of our guards on the bench in foul trouble, trying to break their press, but we held on."Meanwhile, Kovac remains focused on the big picture."This is the kind of game that we can learn from and maybe, in a year, we don't lose this game," he said. "Sometimes you have to take one on the chin in order to grow up and mature."Kayley Kovac finished the game with 34 points, to go along with 17 rebounds. The Eagles (13-7), were led by Fanelli's 22 points, while Julia Kutz added 10.Blue Mountain also prevailed in the JV contest, 47-29.BLUE MTN.Kaledas 1-1-3-4, Challenger 1-0-0-2, Smith 0-0-0-0, Fanelli 7-3-6-22, Connors 2-0-3-4, Moyer 0-4-8-4, Steinhilber 1-0-0-2, Kutz 2-6-10-10, Ebling 1-1-2-3. TOTALS: 17-15-32-51.JIM THORPEP. Kovac 0-2-4-2, Condly 0-0-2-0, Ohl 2-1-4-5, Binder 0-0-0-0, K. Kovac 11-12-20-34, Cressman 2-1-4-5, Waselus 0-1-2-1, Bush 1-0-0-2. TOTALS: 17-17-36-49.Blue Mtn. 2 18 8 16 7 - 51Jim Thorpe 4 8 12 20 5 - 49Three pointers: BM - Fanelli 1, Kaledas 1; JT - none.