JIM THORPE — Blue Mountain hung tough with Pottsville for first 12 minutes of Friday’s District 11 Class AAA boys’ basketball quarterfinal.
But the Crimson Tide’s inside game, especially Jordan Melochick, and their defense took over and turned the game into a rout.
Melochick tied a season high with 19 points, including nine in the second quarter, as top-seeded Pottsville closed the first half on a 13-0 run and rolled to a 60-31 victory over the ninth-seeded Eagles at Jim Thorpe High School.
Pottsville opened the game on a 9-0 run, but Blue Mountain, which opened the playoffs with a 52-48 win over Lehighton in the first round Tuesday, battled back in it.
The Eagles got within a point twice and were down 16-14 after a jumper by Connor Kerstetter with 4:10 left in the first half.
But Blue Mountain’s hopes for an upset quickly vanished.
The Eagles (12-12) missed their last two shot attempts from the floor in the half and turned the ball over three times. The Crimson Tide (25-0) started to push the ball inside, hitting 7-of-9 shots in the quarter, and built a 29-14 halftime lead.
Pottsville then opened the second half with a 9-0 run to go up 38-14 and put the game away.
“Our offense just wasn’t clicking at first,” Melochick said. “But then once the second quarter came around, we started clicking.
“I think our defensive pressure really got our offense going.”
Next up for the Crimson Tide is their fourth meeting this season with No. 4 Tamaqua (20-5) in Tuesday’s semifinals. The Raiders beat No. 5 North Schuylkill 39-33 in a quarterfinal-round game Friday.
Pottsville’s most recent match-up with the Raiders was in the Schuylkill League championship game Feb. 13, a 33-28 overtime win.
Melochick had his best offensive game Friday since he had 19 at Lehighton on Jan 10. His performance included a perfect 8-for-8 showing from the floor and 3-of-4 from the foul line.
The 6-foot-2 junior forward had two three-point plays during the second quarter. He also scored on an alley-oop pass from Connor Hinchliffe and hit 1-of-2 from the line after a drive with 4.4 seconds left in the first half to give Pottsville its 15-point halftime advantage.
Eli Nabholz also scored six points in the quarter, all in the paint, while Travis Blankenhorn had five.
“We knew we have some mismatches, with Travis, Eli and myself, so we tried to get the ball in the paint more,” Melochick said.
Blankenhorn finished with 15 points and five rebounds, while Eli Nabholz had 10 points and seven boards.
Brayden Lewis had 10 points to pace the Raiders, while Mark Chelius added seven points and Kerstetter had five rebounds.
After Kerstetter’s bucket midway through the second quarter, the Eagles didn’t score again until Lewis hit two free throws at 5:21 of the third quarter. Blue Mountain’s next points came on Lewis’ layup at 2:37 of the third and made it 43-18.
Blue Mountain had a decent night shooting, finishing 10-for-25 (40 percent), but turned the ball over 18 times.
“They played great defense,” Eagles coach Dustin Werdt said. “Every time you play them it is a struggle to score. They are so big and strong, and offensively they really attacked the paint on us in the second quarter and we really didn’t have much of an answer.”
Turnovers plagued Pottsville during the first quarter as the Crimson Tide committed six. But Pottsville was much crisper from the second quarter on, turning it over just five times the rest of the night.
The Crimson Tide dominated the inside, reflected by their 25-for-45 (56 percent) shooting night. Pottsville also outrebounded Blue Mountain 27-15.
“Our mentality tonight was we wanted to come out and defend as hard as we have all season,” Pottsville coach Dave Mullaney said. “I really think we did that. I don’t know if it is the best we’ve defended all season, but our energy level was real high and I think we fed off of that.”
“I think that a big part of it also (was) us getting the ball into the post. Our post touches in the first half, we scored on a very high percentage of those.”
Game Summary
District 11 Class AAA quarterfinals
At Jim Thorpe H.S.
BLUE MOUNTAIN (31) — NStramara 1 2-2 4, Kerstetter 2 0-0 4, Barton 0 1-2 1, Welsh 0 0-0 0, Lewis 4 2-4 10, Chelius 2 2-8 7, Albertini 1 0-0 3, Zerbe 0 2-2 2, Biever 0 0-0 0, Bobbin 0 0-0 0, Caulfield 0 0-0 0. Totals 10 9-18 31.
POTTSVILLE (60) — Hinchliffe 0 0-0 0, Painter 1 0-0 2, Blankenhorn 6 0-0 15, Melochick 8 3-4 19, Shuman 0 0-0 0, Witman 2 2-2 6, Abdo 2 0-2 4, Nabholz 5 0-0 10, Coyle 0 0-0 0, Renninger 1 2-4 4. Totals 25 7-12 60.
Blue Mt. (12-12) 6 8 4 13 — 31 Pottsville (25-0) 9 20 16 15 — 60
3-point FGs: Chelius, Albertini, Blankenhorn 3