Hazleton, PA — From the Standard Speaker PJ Hughes and his Scranton girls’ basketball team didn’t leave Hazleton Area’s Hughie McGeehan Gymnasium with any medals or a plaque befitting a champion, Tuesday. After all, the Knights were playing in just their second game of the young season; the host Lady Cougars in only their third. Hughes’ team, however, served notice that it will be among the teams worth watching when medals are awarded later this season. The Knights outscored Hazleton Area 19-6 in the fourth quarter on their way to a 54-37 non-league victory, possibly stamping themselves as contenders for both Lackawanna League Division I and District 2 Class 5A titles in the process. The Knights featured Small, a versatile 6-foot-2 forward, who showed her knack for getting to the basket and/or the foul line. She knocked down her free throws to the tune of 11-for-13. Then there were Jacklinski, who led all players with three 3-pointers on the night, and experienced guards Kennedy Bittenbender and Finley Bittenbender and other role players as parts of a nine-girl rotation that always seemed to have at least one player waiting at the scorer’s table. “Zya’s obviously a very special player, but we like Jaclinski a lot, too,” Hughes said. “They’re learning how to play with our 18-year-olds. Lucky for them, they have a good, experienced group of seniors and juniors that are getting them through it.” A Jacklinski triple gave the Knights their biggest lead of the openingquarter (10-6), but Alexis Reimold’s two free throws and Kaitlyn Bindas’ transition basket knotted the game at 10 by quarter’s end. Turnovers and poor shooting plagued both teams in the second quarter, though threes by Kamryn Alers and Kennedy Bittenbender and two Small foul shots kept Scranton ahead by a small margin through much of the period. That was until Reimold cashed a steal into a layup, Sophia Benyo made a free throw and Jayla Eberts’ recycled a teammate’s miss into two points to give the Lady Cougars a 19-18 edge at halftime. “We had opportunities ... to have an even bigger lead, but we just didn’t take advantage of them,” said Hazleton Area head coach Joe Gavio, whose team was coming off its second straight Lady Cougar Tip-off Tournament title. “I though we were a shot or two of really going on a roll, but we never got there. That happens sometimes.” The Knights found their rhythm over the first four minutes of the third quarter. Kennedy Bittenbender and Jacklinski sandwiched triples around a Small layup and her old-fashioned three-point play to give their team a 29-19 lead at the 4:36 mark, forcing Gavio to call a 30-second timeout. Hazleton Area followed with its best stretch of basketball of the night. Olivia Willliams swished a three-point rainbow, Benyo buried a jumper, Bindas scored after a Scranton turnover and Reimold made a spinning layup after another turnover to pull the Lady Cougars within 29-28 in less than a minute. Small and Bindas swapped a free throw apiece, before Reimold’s two fouls shots put Hazleton Area ahead 31-30 for its final hurrah After Kennedy Bittenbender answered with her own two charity tosses, Small canned another foul shot following a Hazleton Area turnover and Bittenbender drove for a deuce after another Lady Cougars miscue for a 35-31 Scranton lead after three quarters. “We just weren’t ourselves,” Gavio said. “We weren’t running our offense. ... We were rushing things ... which is understandable because we are such a young team. .. We didn’t shoot the ball well. ... Defensively, they were breaking us down with their shooters, plus they had a very good big (girl Small) inside.” With multiple players touching the ball on each possession, the Knights’ offense had even more success in the final quarter. They put the game out of reach with the first 11 points of the quarter. Jacklinski alone beat the Hazleton Area press three times for layups. By the time that Reimold’s hoop put the Lady Cougars on the scoreboard in the fourth, they trailed 46-33 with only 2:30 left. “There was something we just didn’t have tonight that we had in our first two games,” Gavio said. “When push came to shove and they made that little bit of a run (in the fourth quarter), you’ve gotta be able to stop the bleeding. We just couldn’t do anything to stop the bleeding.” Gavio added that he expects his team to “be fine” after its initial loss of the season. The Lady Cougars will get their first chance to rebound at North Pocono on Thursday. “It’s a learning experience,” Gavio said.