ORWIGSBURG - Blue Mountain coach Dustin Werdt feels that sometimes his Eagles take the opposition for granted.
But he wasn't concerned with what he saw as he let them into the locker room during halftime of the junior varsity game Thursday night
"I could just see it in their eyes, they were ready to play," he said.
Blue Mountain certainly was.
Kyle Slane poured in a game- and season-high 25 points, knocking down five 3-pointers on the night, while the Eagles' defense hounded North Schuylkill from the start in a 75-47, Senior Night rout in a Schuylkill League Division I contest.
The Eagles (19-2, 11-1 D-I) jumped all over the Spartans (16-6, 8-4) from the outset, using a 23-6, first-quarter run to get out to a 26-10 advantage. Blue Mountain kept pouring it on from there, leading 47-24 at halftime and 56-32 after three quarter.
The Eagles' victory, coupled with Pottsville's 62-22 rout of Jim Thorpe on Thursday, forces a tiebreaker game between Blue Mountain and Crimson Tide at 7 p.m. Saturday at Minersville since the two teams split their regular-season games.
Both are already in the Schuylkill League Basketball Playoffs sponsored by Spark Orthodontics, with Saturday's loser facing Division III champ Mahanoy Area (20-2) in the first round of Tuesday's semifinals at 6 p.m., while the winner takes on Division II champ Williams Valley (18-2) at 7:30 p.m.
"There was definitely pressure because we want to play Pottsville on Saturday," Slane said. "But we just know when we run the floor, it is tough for teams to keep up and stay with us during the game."
Will Bornstein added 16 points and seven assists for the Eagles, while Skyler Panchari had 10 points and seven rebounds.
Tevin Murray had 13 points and six rebounds to lead North Schuylkill, while Bobby Grigas added 10 points. The loss snapped the Spartans' three-game winning streak, which included a 62-61 victory over Mahanoy Area last Friday.
Meanwhile, the Eagles have been flying high as Thursday's victory was their 13th in a row.
Slane, who completed a double-double with 12 rebounds, certainly was Thursday, too. His previous season high in points was 19 in the season opener against Salisbury on Dec. 6. The three 3s he hit in that game were also a season-high prior to Thursday.
"My shot just felt really nice today and so I thought, 'Why not shoot them, put them up tonight,' " Slane said. "So I did."
He had four 3s in the first half, including three consecutive during the second quarter that gave Blue Mountain a 43-19 lead with 2:46 left in the first half.
Slane's final 3 came with 3:29 left in the game as he got open off a pick and fired up a fall-away shot. The ball bounced around the rim before falling, making it 69-39.
"I just pretty much shot it," Slane said. "They were just falling tonight."
Still it was the Eagles' defense that set up the offense, especially in the first half when Blue Mountain forced North Schuylkill into either bad or contested shots. The Spartans were 9-for-24 (38 percent) from the floor over the first 16 minutes and turned the ball over nine times.
The misses allowed the Eagles to get out, run and score in transition. Blue Mountain finished the first half 20-of-34 (59 percent) from the floor.
"I think the second half of the year our kids have really stepped up their defense," Werdt said. "We certainly have lapses, mental mistakes where we gamble when we shouldn't and things like that.
"But for the most part we are rotating properly, contesting passes and contesting every dribble and getting hands up on shots. The kids have bought into playing defense and they work really hard at it."
Only one team has scored 50 or more points against the Eagles during their current winning steak. That was Northern Lehigh, who put up 57 on Jan. 25. Blue Mountain won the game 60-57.