It was a start not suprising of a veteran team.

And its finish wasn't too bad either.The Palmerton girls, which opened the season with five seniors on the floor Friday night, scored the first 11 points of its contest against non-league rival Lehighton. After the Indians used a second-half run to get back in the game, the experienced Bombers never panicked and used their own spurt to close out a 53-38 victory."You could tell there were seniors out there the way we controlled things early," said Palmerton head coach Rodney Strohl. "We played very well. We were focused on what they were doing to us defensively. I thought offensively we handled the ball well and defensively in the first half we gave up just 11 points."The Bombers' first 11 points came rather quickly as three-pointers by Abby Reimer, Madison Mummey and Jade Farquhar put Lehighton in an early hole."We actually didn't mind them shooting from the perimeter, but they were very, very hot from the outside," said Indian mentor Eric Gidney. "They were hot from the get-go and we got down 11-0. It was a little bit of deja vu from last year when we got down 10-0."Mummey added another trey in the second frame while Farquhar hit a pair of inside shots to help the host team extend its margin to 30-11 at the break.But thanks to different looks on defense and continuous hustle from a Lehighton squad that sometimes uses three freshmen on the floor at the same time, the Indians rallied."They're scrappy," said Strohl. "They're a good team. They're young but good. They've got some talent there and they're going to cause some havoc. The guards handle the ball well and when the freshmen get some more playing time, they could be outstanding. Early in the game they missed key shots ... In the second half, they made some shots and when they did that allowed them to come back in the game."Trailing 41-21 late in the third, Gidney's squad forced three turnovers and also converted on offense. Aubrey Blasiak nailed a three-pointer, Jada Whiteman converted a pair of free throws and Skylynn Faust hit before the buzzer to trim the deficit to 13 points.Inside buckets from Allie Rossino and Faust in the fourth whittled Palmerton's advantage to 41-32.Farquhar, however, showed off her seasoned mettle by calmly knocking down a three-pointer to end the Indians' run. The trey, which came with 5:48 left to play, also started a Bomber 9-2 surge that allowed her team to regain control of the game."That wasn't really the shot we were looking for there, but when you have veterans out there you let them play a little bit," said Strohl. "We might have relied on the perimeter game a little too much. I'm one who likes to go inside more but we do have some nice shooters."Farquhar finished the evening with a game-high 19 points while Mummey added 13. Reimer also reached double figures with 11.For Lehighton, Faust had a team-high 13."I think my group did everything what was asked of them and they left everything out there for 32 minutes," said Gidney. "We're still young and we haven't quite learned how to win games like this. In the second half, we tried to change some things ... We showed them four or five defensive looks in the second half and we wanted to keep them guessing. It was really the only way to try and negate their athleticism."LEHIGHTONRossino 2-0-0-4, Durishin 2-0-2-4, Muffley 0-1-2-1, Whiteman 1-2-2-4, Fital 2-1-2-5, B. Blasiak 2-0-0-4, A. Blasiak 1-0-2-3, Beck 0-0-0-0, Faust 5-2-4-13, Frey 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 15-6-14-38.PALMERTONMissal 0-0-0-0, Smale 0-0-0-0, Reimer 5-0-0-11, Mummey 5-1-2-13, Leister 0-0-0-0, Farquhar 8-1-2-19, Wentz 0-0-0-0, Sterling 0-0-0-0, Tracy 3-0-0-6, Beers 2-0-0-4, Nemeth 0-0-0-0, Goodhile 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 23-2-4-53.Lehighton 6 5 17 10 - 38Palmerton 15 15 11 12 - 53Three-pointers: Lehighton - A. Blasiak 1, Faust 1; Palmerton - Mummey 2, Farquhar 2, Reimer 1.