It's possible to start strong, finish strong, and still come up short in the game of basketball.

This theory was proven true in the Panther Valley Tip-Off championship game between Jim Thorpe and Mahanoy Area.The Olympians roared out of the gate on a 9-3 run in the first quarter and almost doubled Mahanoy's point-total in the fourth period. However, the Golden Bears truly played a "full four quarters" on their way to earning a 50-40 championship victory."It's a great opportunity to come down here and get a win early in the season," said Mahanoy Area head coach Scott Hudson. "It's important to get off to a good start. We've had success in this tournament in the past, and I'm happy we played well again tonight."The Olympians had a quick start due to star big-man Shane Snisky scoring six of his team-high 16 points within the first three minutes of the game.However, the Golden Bears outscored the Olympians by a 28-11 margin in the second and third quarters. Mahanoy opened the third period on a 12-2 spurt that eventually extended the lead to as much as 17 toward the end of the quarter."The third quarter was great; we held them (Jim Thorpe) to just three points," explained Hudson." The fourth quarter, not so muchbut that was because we turned the ball over, which turned into some easy layups for Jim Thorpe. We didn't give up any offensive rebounds in the third quarter and I think that was a big part of the game.After a dismal third period, the Olympians kicked it into high gear with a 13-2 sprint to start the fourth frame, as they showed what they're truly capable of defensively. The Olympians forced seven turnovers in the final frame."We got down and we had to makes some moves to try and get them (Mahanoy) in some trouble," said Jim Thorpe head coach Jason McElmoyle. "That's the kind of intensity we have to play with for four quarters. We got up and we just kind of sat back a bit."Hudson said, "We showed a little bit of our inexperience at the end tonight, we struggled against half court traps and some different things. At the end, we were able to move the ball and make some layups.""I was happy with our execution early on, but we got into some foul trouble later in the game. Matt Yedsena went out of the game and it changed the flow a bit because he keep things going (defensively) with his speed and quickness.The Olympians clearly outplayed Mahanoy in the fourth frame, but couldn't make up the lost ground from the previous two quarters.Mahanoy's Brian Miller earned the tournament MVP honors, much due to his huge game-high 19-point performance Saturday night that helped his Golden Bears fend off McElmoyle's squad."Yesterday he scored just four points, but had some huge rebounds down the stretch," explained Hudson. "I told him that if we can come out with a win with him scoring just a few points, that's great for us. We needed him score for us tonight and he did. The last two years he was more of an outside player, but this year we need him to play inside and he had a great game. We gutted it out and hit some big free throws toward the end.""It's a building process and it just wasn't there tonight. We like what we see and we just need to get better every day. The loss hurts and the players care about it. We're going to take the things that we did wrong tonight and learn from it," McElmoyle said.JIM THORPESnisky 7-2-4-16, McElmoyle 1-0-0-2, Carroll 3-0-0-8, Micciche 2-1-3-5, Elmore 1-2-4-4, Vency 2-1-2-5. TOTALS: 16-6-13-40.MAHANOY AREAStyke 3-0-0-6, Fedor 0-0-0-0, Wronski 2-0-0-6, Erbe 0-0-0-0, Joseph 3-0-0-6, Yedsona 4-4-4-13, Miller 6-5-6-19. TOTALS: 12-9-10-50.Jim Thorpe 14 8 3 15 - 40Mahanoy Area 14 12 16 8 - 50Three-pointers: JT - Carroll 2; M - Wronski 2, Yedsona 1, Miller 2