Bears cop tourney title

Looking at the big picture, Nadia Pavuk liked what she saw.

Two gritty wins and another tournament title were exactly what the Pleasant Valley head coach was looking for.

After the Bears turned back Lehighton 43-38 on Saturday in the final of the Lady Indians Holiday Classic, Pavuk pointed to the progress her team has made in putting away tight games.

“I think their mental toughness is growing,” said Pavuk. “At the beginning of the year, we talked about having a mental toughness, and making sure that they’re doing the right things when they get the basketball. And they’re starting to do that, and they’re coming together as a team. It was a great team win, both nights.”

After grinding out a 41-35 win over Palmerton on Friday, Pleasant Valley put together another determined effort to deny a late comeback from the Indians.

The Bears (7-1) watched as a 35-17 lead late in the third quarter slowly began to evaporate.

“I think we definitely got too relaxed once we had a big lead,” said the Bears’ Cam Caffrey. “We kind of thought we had the game at that point. But Lehighton was really tough, and we just worked together to try to combat that throughout the night.”

The Tournament MVP, Caffrey was clutch down the stretch.

A three-pointer from Lehighton’s (4-6) Hailey Miller tied the game at 35-35 with 2:40 to play in the fourth quarter. Caffrey, who scored a game-high 20 points, responded with a trey at the other end to push the Bears back in front.

Abigail Meckes converted three free throws on the Tribe’s ensuing possessions to tie it again at 38-38 with less than two minutes to play.

But Caffrey’s next basket put Pleasant Valley ahead for good.

“Cam didn’t shoot the ball very well against Palmerton on Friday, and her and I had a conversation before the game today, and I told her that good shooters shoot, and that she would shoot herself out of it,” said Pavuk. “She deserves to shoot the ball; she’s a great player. She took that to heart and she shot the ball very well.”

Two free throws from Madison O’Neil, and another from Alyssa Wagner in the final 30 seconds, set the final score.

The Bears Riley Wagner added 11 points, and also was named to the All-Tournament team.

In addition to several clutch shots, the Bears also made big defensive plays down the stretch to secure the win. Sam Merklin came up with a steal on an inbounds pass with Pleasant Valley leading 40-38, which led to two free throws from O’Neil.

O’Neil delivered a steal of her own with 15 seconds to play before Alyssa Wagner converted a free throw with 10.5 seconds left.

“Pleasant Valley is a super quick team, very aggressive, and that certainly was a concern for us,” said Indians head coach Joe Berezwick. “We knew that we weren’t going to have better speed up and down the court, and we knew that they press, and our biggest concern was keeping our composure with the press.

“But we made an adjustment going from the 2-3 into the 3-2, and I think with them trying to control the clock and delay the game, it hurt their momentum, and our kids picked up the pace, where it was us on the run. We climbed all the way back to tie it … our kids played really hard.”

Meckes, an All-Tournament selection, had 11 of her team-high 15 points in the fourth quarter for Lehighton. Tinaya Klotz finished with seven points and was also named to the All-Tournament team.

The Indians led 13-10 after the first quarter. But the Bears put together a 25-4 run to build their 18-point lead late in the third period.

“We were in this position last year, and then we came across some tough EPC teams,” said Pavuk. “I hope now that our mental toughness is there, and that we’re in a better place than we were last year. We were 9-0 at this point last year, but we didn’t have any kind of pressure on us … now we’ve played in games that are close, and we’re seeing that we do have the mental capacity to hang in there and stay with it. “

WINNERS … Lehighton defeated Pleasant Valley to win the JV portion of the Lady Indians Holiday Classic.

TOURNEY TEAM … Palmerton’s Bethie Morgan and Northern Lehigh’s Emma Niebell also were selected to the All-Tournament Team.

PLEASANT VALLEY

R. Wagner 4-3-6-11, Caffrey 8-0-1-20, O’Neil 2-2-2-6, A. Wagner 1-1-3-3, Arndt 0-0-0-0, Merklin 1-1-3-3, Mattison 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 16-7-15-43.

LEHIGHTON

Klotz 3-1-2-7, Marchessault 0-3-4-3, Miller 1-1-2-4, Bowman 0-0-0-0, Meckes 4-7-9-15, Fisher 0-2-2-2, Solomon 3-0-0-7. TOTALS: 11-14-19-38.

Pleasant Vy. 10 10 15 8 - 43

Lehighton 13 2 8 15 - 38

Three-pointers: Pleasant Valley - Caffrey 4. Lehighton - Miller 1, Solomon 1.