Christian Alvarez, Pottsville basketball

TAMAQUA — Pottsville boys’ basketball coach Jake Wartella couldn’t preach it enough to his Crimson Tide team prior to Monday’s Schuylkill League Division I meeting against Tamaqua.

“Don’t let their record fool you,” Wartella said of the winless Raiders, “This is a very good team.”

Indeed, the Blue Raiders are going to be a tough out by the time Valentine’s Day hits the calendar.

Monday’s game went right down to the wire before the Tide stayed the course and fending off the hosts 64-59 to improve to 4-0 overall, 2-0 in the division.

“These kids are very resilient. They keep battling, they’re mentally tough and they find a way to win,” Wartella said of his team.

The Tide rallied around the sharpshooting of Christian Alvarez, who kept draining treys like they were layups in the first half. Alvarez finished with five 3-pointers and a team-high 17 points while Letrel Montone added 15 points.

“He was really hot in that first half,” Wartella said when asked about his outside sharpshooter.

Indeed, the junior was sizzling from beyond the arc. He nailed his first three shots, scoring nine points in helping lift the Tide to an 18-15, first-quarter lead.

While Alvarez was letting it fly, the Blue Raiders (0-4, 0-2 D-I) had answers of their own. Luke Kane, Cooper Ansbach and Noah Mateyak, who had a monster of a game with six 3-pointers and 20 points to take game honors, rose to the occasion.

Kane knocked down five points for his side to keep Tamaqua within arm’s-length at the start. Every time Tamaqua rallied, Alvarez was throwing up a roadblock for his side, he nailed his fourth trey of the first half to send the Tide in front 23-21. Then Montone surfaced in the middle of the second quarter giving Pottsville a scant 29-25 lead.

When Tamaqua rallied to take a 34-32 lead with 1:31 to play in the first half on a nifty downtown triple by Mateyak, the Tide showed the resiliency that Wartella talked about by scoring the final six points of the period to take a 38-34 lead.

Alvarez buried another 3-pointer while teammate Ryder Bowers zinged in a trey of his own.

“We had a lot answers in the first half, but you could sense Tamaqua was going to make a run the way they played in that first half,” Wartella said.

To be sure, the Raiders were answering at full steam.

Tamaqua cranked up the heat, turning to Ansbach, Mateyak and Kane. The trio gave Tamaqua a good shot in the arm, boosting the Blue Raiders in front 51-49 after three quarters.

“We did some really nice things in the first three quarters,” Tamaqua coach Jim Barron said. “What we need is to find a way to finish off the game. That’s a really good Pottsville team. (Alvarez) is a very special player for them and they got some really good guard play. But we’re going to be alright. We’re going to win games.”

It looked as if Tamaqua was going to win this game, for starters, especially the way it opened the home stretch. Ansbach, who was teetering on fouling out with his fourth foul early in the fourth quarter, sliced his way to the iron, with a nifty move for a deuce and a 53-49 lead to open the quarter.

Pottsville never shriveled, turning to unsung Derek Watkins, who just kept coming up with big buckets throughout the evening. He drove inside to help his team get the all-important moment in the critical part of the contest.

Even though Tamaqua got a huge putback from Kane for a 55-54 lead, the last for the Raiders, JuJu Bainbridge tickled the twines for a huge trey, Watkins drained a deuce, Alvarez flicked in a bucket from close range.

London Ivy, the 6-foot-5 Tide center, added a basket before Watkins drove the dagger into the heart of the Raiders to secure the win, finishing off a 7-0 run and a 61-58 lead with less than thirty seconds to play.

SHOOTING IT UP … Both teams shot very well from the floor. For an early season showdown game, the Tide went 25-for-51, 16-for-23 in the first half. Tamaqua finished the night 23-for-56 after a 13-for-25 first half.

OFF THE GLASS … Tamaqua had the edge with 31-28 in the rebounding department, and was led by Ansbach (11), Kane (9) and Mateyak (6). Alvarez had nine boards for the Tide.

Game Summary

POTTSVILLE (64) — Bainbridge 1 0-0 3, McGinley 0 0-0 0, Watkins 4 3-6 11, Alvarez 6 0-1 17, Montrone 6 2-4 15, Bowers 3 0-0 9, Flucker-White 0 0-0 0, Ivy 4 1-1 9. Totals 24 6-12 64.

TAMAQUA (59) — Ansbach 6 3-3 15, McCabe 5 0-1 10, Mateyak 6 2-3 20, Vecolitis 0 0-0 0, Davis 0 0-0 0, Schickram 1 0-0 2, Kane 5 1-5 12, Tamagini 0 0-0 0. Totals 23 6-12 59.

Potts (3-0, 2-0)  18 … 20 … 11 … 15 — 64

Tam (0-4, 0-2)     15 … 19 … 17 … 8 — 59

3-point FGs: Alvarez 5, Bowers 3, Bainbridge, Montrone, Mateyak 6, Kane

JV Score: Pottsville 63-34