TAMAQUA - It's a story line that's been written plenty of times in the past, and will be written plenty of more times in the future.
The Pottsville boys' basketball program under coach Dave Mullaney is all about man-to-man defense.
"Coach Mullaney just appears to be a defensive guru," Tamaqua coach Caszy Kosciolek said.
Monday was no different. And the Crimson Tide may have found themselves two new defensive stoppers, too.
Travis Blankenhorn (17 points), Jordan Melochick (16) and Eli Nabholz (15) all hit double figures for Pottsville, but it was its defensive effort that led the way again in a 50-41 victory over Tamaqua in Schuylkill League Division I contest at the Tamaqua Athletic Complex.
The victory was the 45th consecutive in the division for the Crimson Tide (6-1, 2-0 D-I). And despite four new starters, they have picked right up where they left off last year when they allowed 36.3 points per game.
In its first seven games this season, Pottsville is giving up 39.2 points per game. The most it allowed in a game this year came during a 58-43 loss to Wilson West Lawn on Dec. 11.
"Great defensive effort, a great team effort," the Crimson Tide's Ty Painter said. "Help on defense, we contested all their shots. They had to work for everything they got. They are a good team. It was a good win for us."
Painter, a junior, and Melochick, a sophomore, are two of the new starters for Pottsville this season. And both were the main defensive heros for the Crimson Tide on Monday, although everybody had a part.
For most of the game, Melochick was responsible for guarding the Raiders' 6-foot-7 forward, Brett Kosciolek, while Painter drew the assignment of Tamaqua point guard Bo Rottet.
Rottet finished the night with 17 points, including eight in the fourth quarter, while Kosciolek added 14. But it turned out to be a rough night for both.
Almost every time Kosciolek got the ball, Melochick was right on him and got help for a double- and sometimes triple-team on Kosciolek, who finished the night 4-for-17 from the floor.
"I just really had to crowd him and make sure he had to put the ball on the floor," Melochick said. "I didn't want him to put any 3s up so he had to put the ball on the floor. I got help from my teammates."
The Raiders were 14-for-41
(34 percent) from the floor Monday and a focus of the Crimson Tide's defense was shutting down the 3-pointer. The Raiders came in averaging 6.2 3s per game but were 2-for-12 from beyond the arc Monday, Rottet, who knocked down seven 3s in Saturday's 69-43 rout of Hamburg, hit both.
"Pottsville does that to a lot of teams," Caszy Kosciolek said. "We didn't shoot it particularly well. They take you out of what you want to do. They contest passes, they contest shots, and you got one shot and done."
Offensively, Pottsville was 21-for-37 (57 percent) shooting Monday, taking advantage of several opportunities inside off cuts to the basket and low-post moves.
The key quarter turned out to be the third. The Crimson Tide led 24-19 at 7:36 after the Raiders' Zach Wargula scored on a cut inside. But Pottsville went on a 15-6 run from there, hitting 7-for-10 from the floor.
Blankenhorn started the run, scoring on a move inside. Melochick then put in layup off a back-side cut, Nabholz hit a jumper from the top of the circle and Melochick put in his own miss to make it 33-23 Crimson Tide at 4:06 of the third.
"We always stress that, coming out, first 4 minutes of the third quarter," Pottsville coach Dave Mullaney said. "We thought that if we could win the first four minutes, we could win the game. And our guys came out really aggressive and we went back to turning our motion a little bit more and trying to work inside out and get the ball in the post and getting a couple of easy ones like that got us going." Game Summary