With leading scorer and rebounder Julia Kutz out of the lineup, Blue Mountain needed someone to step up.

Several players did just that, but no one did it better than Abby Fanelli.Fanelli, who has joined Kutz to provide the Blue Eagles with a strong 1-2 scoring punch all season, carried the brunt of the offensive load by herself Friday night.Behind Fanelli's game-high 19 points, Blue Mountain was able to pull away from Lehighton for a 48-34 Schuylkill League victory."Julia (Kutz) was out with the flu tonight, so we needed our kids to dig deep and find a way to make up for her absence," said Blue Mountain coach Ruth Weidman. "That's not easy because Julia averages a double-double, but I couldn't be more proud of how our girls responded."We had a number of girls who really did a great job, but obviously Abby's performance was huge for us. She gave us the offense we needed."In a game that was dominated by defense for most of the night, Fanelli's outside shooting and perfect night at the foul line was the difference."I thought we played well defensively," said Lehighton coach Eric Gidney. "The final score doesn't reflect how close the game was. We hung in there the whole way, we just could never get over the hump."Fanelli is a good player and she hurt us at times, but for the most part I thought we did a nice job defensively. Unfortunately, our offense wasn't what it needed to be."The Indians (4-8, 2-3) trailed by only two points late in the third quarter and were down just 38-32 with three minutes remaining, but couldn't generate enough offense to pull out a victory."Not to make excuses, but this was the second night of a back-to-back for us (the Indians lost in double overtime on Thursday)," said Gidney. "It's only natural that your legs aren't going to be as fresh and I think you saw that a little bit tonight."I thought it showed more on the offensive end of the floor for us. Our cuts weren't as sharp, our screens weren't as solid, and our passes weren't as crisp."Despite those struggles, Lehighton still had a chance late in the game.But Blue Mountain's combination of ball handling, ball movement and free throw shooting down the stretch allowed it to pull away.Leading 38-32 coming out of a timeout with 3:05 left, the Blue Eagles (5-5, 3-2) were able to run nearly two minutes off the clock as Lehighton had to foul multiple times to finally get in the penalty situation. Once it got to the line, Blue Mountain converted 10 of 13 free throws in the final 1:23 to seal the outcome."Give Blue Mountain credit, they did what good teams do," said Gidney. "They protected the ball and made free throws down the stretch."Aubrey Blasiak had 12 points to lead Lehighton, which is in the midst of a tough three-game stretch of perennial Schuylkill League powers."We just played two storied programs this week (North Schuylkill and Blue Mountain) who have the type of successful traditions that we want to build here," said Gidney. "And Tuesday we have league leader Pottsville so it doesn't get any easier ... but you don't expect anything less, this is Schuylkill League girls basketball."BLUE MOUNTAINKaledas 0-3-6-3, Challenger 0-0-0-0, Smith 0-2-3-2, Fanelli 5-7-7-19, Connors 1-5-6-7, Moyer 2-2-4-7, Steinhibler 2-0-0-4, Ebling 3-0-0-6. TOTALS: 13-19-26-48.LEHIGHTONRossino 1-0-0-2, Durishin 0-1-2-1, Whiteman 2-4-6-8, Fital 3-1-3-7, B. Blasiak 0-0-0-0, A. Blasiak 4-2-2-12, Faust 2-0-0-4. TOTALS: 12-8-13-34.Blue Mountain 13 12 9 14 - 48Lehighton 10 9 7 8 - 34Three-pointers: BM - Fanelli 2, Moyer 1. L - A. Blasiak 2.