Tamaqua wasn’t clicking on all cylinders on Saturday afternoon in the championship game of the Lady Blue Raiders Tip-Off tournament.

But that didn’t prevent the Raiders from rolling to an easy 39-18 victory over Catasauqua to repeat as the tournament champions.

The Raiders struggled offensively during the opening half, committing eight turnovers and shooting just 6-for-28.

“I’m not pleased at all … ugly start,” said Tamaqua coach Erika Davis. “Really, I’m not happy with the way we played. I think we took one step backward. We didn’t do a very good job fundamentally. We didn’t play smart. We forced shots. We need to clean things up.”

Tamaqua forced its share of shots in going just 2-for-11 in the first eight minutes as it seized an 8-7 edge when Emily Titus dropped in a pair of late foul shots for the lead — one her team would maintain the remainder of the game.

Veteran Catasauqua coach Ed Seidick had his team pack in a 2-3 zone which worked well early on.

“We’re not very tall, so we needed to get as many girls to the rim and try to rebound with a very good basketball team,”Seidick said.

Tamaqua nudged in front 12-7 to open the second quarter when Jen Frederickson and Emma Kuczynski knocked down buckets in the first three minutes. The Raiders were ahead 16-9 with 4:07 left, but failed to score another point the rest of the half.

“We’ve got to be more patient with our offense,” said Davis. “We’ve got to run through our (sets). It really didn’t feel like a win. We were forcing shots … we weren’t staying in the offense. We started to panic.”

Tamaqua may have had its pride wounded, but sucked it up to open the third period.

The Raiders used an 8-0 run to finally break the game open. Kristen Jones, who had a terrific game with 18 rebounds, scored five straight points to ignite the run as Tamaqua opened a 27-13 lead.

“They’ve got several kids that can shoot the basketball,” said Seidick. “I told their coach during warmups that they’re kids have great form. They stayed composed in that third quarter, and they started to hit those shots.”

The Raiders continued to pull away in the fourth quarter, but the second-half domination didn’t quite sooth Davis.

“We have a long way to go before we can think of being a really good basketball team,” she said. “It’s early, so we can fix things. I know we are better than we played today.”

THE NUMBERS … Both teams struggled shooting as Tamaqua went 16-for-58, and Catty 8-for-49. Catasauqua had 26 turnovers, and Tamaqua committed 20. Tamaqua sophomore Rebekah Hromyak continues to come up big in her maiden varsity season, as she poured in nine points and collared five rebounds. Frederickson chipped in with eight points.

BIG BOARDS … Tamaqua had a big day on the glass with 51 rebounds, led by Jones’ 18. Kuczynski had a double-double with 11 rebounds and 13 points. Jones has 30 rebounds in two games, with her career number currently at 657.

CATASAQUA

Rushatz 0-0-0-0, Bradley 2-0-0-5, DeLucia 2-0-0-4, Huber 0-0-0-0, Lacey 2-0-2-4, Hicks 0-0-0-0, Brown 0-1-2-1, Emry 2-0-0-4, Barna 0-0-0-0, Richards 0-0-0-0, Greenburg 0-0-0-0, George 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 8-1-5-18.

TAMAQUA

Kane 1-0-0-2, Zuber 1-0-0-3, Hromyak 0-0-0-0, Jones 3-3-4-9, Boyle 0-0-0-0, Titus 1-2-2-4, Frederickson 4-0-0-8, Kuczynski 6-1-4-13, Reinhardt 0-0-0-0, Frederick 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 16-6-10-39.

3-point field goals: T Zuber. C Bradley-1

Catasaqua 7 4 2 5 - 18

Tamaqua 8 8 11 12 - 39

Three-pointers: Catasauqua - Bradley 1; Tamaqua - Zuber 1.