Defense propels PV to easy win

Pleasant Valley’s defense clamped down.

The Bears offense did the rest.

A lockdown defense put Pleasant Valley in control – and put the offense in high gear – in a 56-26 win over Palmerton Thursday night in the opening game of the Lady Indians Holiday Classic at Lehighton High School.

“I think we were changing our defense a couple different times, and I think that held them at bay because they weren’t able to come down and just setup where they wanted to setup,” said Bears head coach Nadia Gauronsky. “I think that was important for us, and I think that we did a nice job with that. And our defense created our offense tonight, and that was nice to see.”

Pleasant Valley’s stifling defense led to points in transition. The Bears used an 18-0 run to start the second quarter to open up a 32-8 lead and take command of the game.

“We knew what we were getting into when we were playing Pleasant Valley,” said Palmerton head coach Ralph Andrews. “They run the fast-break extremely well, and that’s really what hurt us there in the second quarter. We were outscored 24-2 in the second quarter, and the majority of that came in transition points.

“They do a great job running the floor, but we made it easy on them. When we turn over the ball as frequently as we do, and at the positions on the floor that we do – that leads to two easy points the other way.”

The easy looks were put into motion by the Bears’ defensive efforts.

“I think Masani Francis did a nice job on (Linnaea) Leister,” Gauronsky said of Francis, who held Leister to two points in the first half. “Maddy Rosenberg did a nice job rebounding, and Ashley Schwenck did a nice job of blocking some great shots inside, and that led us to our break.

“We had good shooting, too, with Cam Caffrey. And Mikaela Miller made some layups tonight.”

Caffrey led the way with 12 points, including nine in the decisive second quarter, while Rosenberg tallied 11 points, and Alexa Clark added 10 points to give Pleasant Valley three players in double figures – and Gauronsky plenty of options.

“It’s nice,” the coach said. “You don’t really know where your points are gonna come from, so you can’t really key on one kid and say, ‘Well, if you stop this one, you stop the team.’

“I think that’s a nice element that we have that maybe other teams don’t have.”

Miller scored seven of her nine points in the first quarter to help the Bears build an early advantage.

A basket from Baylee Guedes at the end of the first period cut Pleasant Valley’s lead to 14-8.

But the Blue Bombers didn’t score again until another Guedes bucket with 2:00 to play in the second quarter that made it 32-10. The Bears led 38-10 at halftime.

“We came out, and we played a tough first quarter, and we accomplished some of the things we knew we needed to do to be successful in the game, and we kind of got away from that in the second quarter,” said Andrews. “Give credit to Pleasant Valley. They put on the pressure.”

TITLE TIME … Pleasant Valley advances to tonight’s championship game to face Lehighton. The game tips at 7:30 p.m.

FIRST TIME … Pleasant Valley is playing in the annual tournament for the first time this season with the departure of Jim Thorpe. Gauronsky couldn’t have been happier to have her team participate in the event. “I think it’s a great tournament. We’re excited to be here,” Gauronsky said. “We’re playing some local teams, which is nice, too. We appreciate Lehighton having us because it’s a really nice tournament.”

PLEASANT VALLEY

R. Wagner 0-0-1-0, Caffrey 5-1-2-12, O’Neil 0-1-2-1, B. Clark 1-0-0-2, Miller 4-1-1-9, A. Thourot 0-0-0-0, A. Clark 3-2-2-10, Rosenberg 4-2-3-11, Francis 2-1-2-5, A. Wagner 0-0-2-0, Schwenck 3-0-2-6. TOTALS: 22-8-17-56.

PALMERTON

H. Guedes 0-0-0-0, B. Guedes 3-0-1-6, Hirochek 1-0-0-2, Cincilla 1-0-0-2, Leister 2-5-8-9, Frantz 1-0-0-2, Molchan 0-0-0-0, Beahm 0-0-0-0, Oldt 0-0-0-0, Recker 1-0-0-3, Mihalko 1-0-0-2, Morgan 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 10-5-9-26.

Pleasant Vy. 14 24 9 9 - 56

Palmerton 8 2 7 9 - 26

Three-pointers: Pleasant Valley – A. Clark 2, Caffrey 1, Rosenberg 1. Palmerton – Recker 1.