In Friday night's season-opener against Panther Valley, Jim Thorpe proved it doesn't really matter how you start; it's how you finish that matters.

The Olympians used a strong second half to pull away from the Panthers to claim an impressive 54-31 victory in the second game of the Panther Valley Tip-Off Tournament.For first-year Jim Thorpe head coach Jason McElmoyle, the goal heading into the decisive second half was simple."I think the guys just let the game come to them," he said. "It's the first game of the season, and in the first half I think the guys were a little bit nervous."But at halftime, we just preached to do what we've been practicing and they played great; they executed great. In the first half, a lot of it was just PV taking us out of what we wanted to do. They really pressured us and that's a credit to them. They made it tough on us but we made adjustments."The Olympians (1-0, 1-0) held a narrow 21-18 lead at the half before outscoring the Panthers 33-13 over the final two quarters.Panther Valley (0-1, 0-1) tied the score 21-21 early in the third quarter after Chad Dubosky hit the first of his two free throws.But Jim Thorpe used sharp shooting from sophomore Brendan Carroll, who nailed back-to-back three-pointers in the third to give the Olympians a 29-21 lead."He is a smart, heady player," said Panther Valley head coach Pat Crampsie. "He's able to get things under control. When there's chaos out there, he's able to get things under control."He's smart, and when the shot's there he takes it; he doesn't force it. He hit those shots and we lost him in transition and that was the turning point in the game. He was someone we were very concerned with, and I think that was the difference."For Carroll, who finished with 15 points, it was simply a matter of taking advantage of the opportunity."We just wanted to keep the tempo up, continue to pressure them and hustle back to get good looks," he said. "My teammates really helped me out by attacking the middle of their zone and then kicking it out to me. Just moving the ball around really helped get us some open looks."Another player that made the most of his playing time Friday night was sophomore Matt Elmore, who finished with a game-high 17 points, including 11 in the fourth quarter."Matt is someone that was always a part of the game plan," said McElmoyle, "but he was a JV player and was playing (tonight) because we had a guy that was injured."But we preach next man up, and you can't ask for a bigger contribution than what he did tonight."Elmore was simply happy to be a factor in the win and help the Olympians get off to a good start after going 2-20 last season."I'm just very humbled to have this opportunity," he said. "We didn't do so well last year, so we just tried to come into this game with a fresh mindset and do the best that we could."The win puts Jim Thorpe in tonight's title game against Mahanoy Area, which claimed a 44-38 triumph over Marian Catholic earlier in the night.While he knows the task at hand won't be easy, McElmoyle is excited to move on and take another step forward."Mahanoy's a great team; they're a tough team," the coach noted. "But we just have to come out and play hard. We'll keep preaching fundamentals and hopefully we'll play like we did in the second half tonight."Anthony Micholik led Panther Valley with 11 points, including seven of the Panthers' 13 second half points.Despite his team's struggles, Crampsie was pleased with the squad's effort and is looking forward to getting back on the court tonight."We knew we were searching for some offensive identity, and obviously that's still the case," he said. "If we learn from tonight, I'll be happy."We play our rival (Marian) tomorrow, so there's no time to sulk. We have to come out and be ready to compete."JIM THORPES. Snisky 3-4-6-10, McElmoyle 0-0-1-0, Carroll 4-4-6-15, Micciche 1-3-4-5, Elmore 8-1-5-17, Veney 2-0-0-6, Luciana 0-0-0-0, Twardzick 0-0-0-0, O. Snisky 1-0-0-2, Laver 0-0-0-0, Jefferson 0-0-0-0. TOTALS:

19-12-22-54.PANTHER VALLEYKeo 0-2-2-2, Dubosky 2-3-4-7, Stano 0-0-0-0, Vermillion 0-0-0-0, Micholik 4-1-2-11, Nase 0-0-0-0, Miller 1-1-2-3, Hudicka 1-0-0-3, Eickoff 0-0-0-0, Fisher 0-0-0-0, Blasko 0-5-6-5, Emmert 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 8-12-16-31..Jim Thorpe

15 6 14 19 - 54Panther Valley

11 7 5 8 - 31Three-pointers: Jim Thorpe - Carroll 3, Veney 1; Panther Valley - Micholik 2, Hudicka 1