This season, Catasauqua head boys' basketball coach Eric Snyder might prefer to take a different route to the postseason and preferably, back to the Class 2A championship game.

It was last season when the Roughies struggled with consistent play and found themselves with a 5-5 record and began to have some doubts about returning to district play.

But, they finally all began to play and travel on an unswerving path to the post season, one in which they won 10 in a row before they fell to Notre Dame in the league finale.

Snyder surely wouldn't mind traveling the same path back to the final, but he preferably would rather have his club take a more consistent route.

With the recent loss to Nazareth, the Roughies fell to 4-4 this season before they began play this week. It has been a seesaw season in which they reeled off four straight wins to start the season before they recently suffered four consecutive defeats.

"It was disappointing and frustrating how we lost the Nazareth game," stated Snyder about the 56-50 loss in which they had a 41-33 lead at the start of the fourth quarter. "We had a lead and were playing well, but then we collapsed.

"We had breakdowns on both offense and defense, and we just seemed to go into a funk. We had the same problems in losses to Northampton and Northern Lehigh."

Against Northampton, Catty battled back from an 18-point deficit, but they lost the 64-60 deficit in overtime basically due to some inconsistent shooting and free-throw shooting. They saw Northern Lehigh erupt for 37 points in the second half – 24 in the third quarter – that helped them to a 60-55 victory.

"We should have had both of those games," said the veteran coach. "We can play an upbeat game and do the right things and then we have breakdowns. We went through something similar last season.

"We were struggling and then we finally woke up."

The Roughies surely haven't been struggling due to their lack of an offensive effort. Beginning this week, Paryss Marshall was the team's leading scorer, averaging roughly 15 points per game, followed by newcomer Dakota Schiffer, who has been a key spark off the bench as he has averaged almost 10 points per game.

Catty has also been fueled by Derrick and Kevin Bond along with Brandon Purrone, all of whom have averaged better than seven points per contests.

"We have had a good rotation and we are working to expand it," added Snyder. "(Schiffer) has really done a great job coming off the bench and it has been a nice role for him. We may have to think about putting him into the starting lineup soon.

"We have been scoring, but we need to tighten things defensively and stay focused in games. We'll need to play with a better sense of urgency."

The Roughies will get back to the court for the first time in nearly a week when they travel to Southern Lehigh Friday and then have a quick turnaround with an afternoon contest against Phillipsburg Saturday.

After that, Catty will play four games over a five-day period beginning Jan. 14. During those periods, Snyder will look for a consistent solution rather than last year's dramatic one.

"Putting together a winning streak isn't the easiest thing to do," he said. "We need to start finishing games. We believe we have the talent and we spent the Christmas break fine tuning our offense.

"We need to play with a purpose and make some better choices."