A thrilling overtime finish between Pleasant Valley and Tamaqua was truly a tale of two halves.

The Bears were as hot as it gets in the first half, draining eight three pointers and enjoying a second period which they outscored the Raiders by a 24-6 margin.The hot shooting of Pleasant Valley ended after intermission, as the Raiders remarkably came back from an 18-point halftime deficit and grabbed a brief lead late in the game.As the Raiders were down by three points with four seconds left in the extra session, Tamaqua's Bo Rottet heaved a desperation 30-footer, which was accurate but didn't fall. Pleasant Valley grinded out a much needed roller coaster ride of a victory over Tamaqua, 67-64.Tamaqua changed defenses frequently in the first half as it tried to figure out how to slow down the Pleasant Valley attack. Although most Bears' shots were contested, they simply were on fire from the field."The shots were finally falling for us," explained Pleasant Valley's Eric Marbury who had 10 points, including a critical corner three-pointer that tied the game with under a minute remaining in regulation. "Early in the season a lot of them weren't going down, but they did tonight."Bears' star guard Nyiem Navarez was a huge part of PV's early success, scoring 15 first half points totaling a team-high 23."That was probably the best we've shot the basketball all season," said Pleasant Valley head coach Matt Gould. "Nyiem was great tonight, he has such a quick first step and he's very hard to defend.""They (Pleasant Valley) shot the ball phenomenally well," said Tamaqua head coach Caszy Kosciolek. "At halftime I told everyone that we need to take it one possession at a time and that we need to try and cut the lead to single digits by the fourth quarter. We took control of the tempo later in the game and really started to take the ball to the basket."In a span of just five minutes of actual game time between the third and fourth periods, the once 18-point Bears' lead vanished. The Raiders started the third quarter on an 8-2 spurt, and the fourth frame on a 12-0 run which tied the game at the five-minute mark."I told them to ignore the scoreboard and that we should show everyone the character of this team," explained the Tamaqua coach. "Almost all of these kids are on the honor roll who have had success in their high school careers. These kids are winners who play together."Rottet and Brett Kosciolek took over offensively in the fourth quarter and combined for 17 of the team's 23 points. What you won't see in the box score was all of the impressive things that Raider senior Nate MacDonald did late in the contest.MacDonald had a handful of important rebounds during critical moments. The Raider senior also played near perfect defense on an Eric Marbury isolation play at the end of regulation. Marbury is one of the better ball handlers and shot creators in Eastern Pennsylvania Conference, and MacDonald's defensive stop literally forced overtime."He's an unsung player who does all of the dirty things," said Kosciolek. "He rebounds plays defense, and is a capable scorer. He gives us some real toughness. I can't say enough about his contributions."Gould said, "We wanted to run some plays and work the clock in the second half, but it didn't happen. We've played some tough competition in the EPC and it definitely helps us prepare for these situations. I'm very happy that we came out of here with the victory."Although Tamaqua (9-1) came up one bucket short and took their first loss of 2014, Kosciolek admired the resilience of his Raiders."I was more proud of this team tonight than in any of the previous nine games we've played," he said. "Who would have thought we would have taken the lead and had an opportunity to win the game? Sending this game into overtime was a yeomen's effort on our part. They are believers who are fun to coach and fun to watch."PLEASANT VY.Mikulski 4-0-0-10, Navarez 8-4-7-23, Marbury 4-1-1-10, Moore 2-2-5-6, Wisser 3-1-2-10, Barker 0-0-0-0, Sharpe 2-1-4-6, Shaffner 1-0-0-2, Pandalfo 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 24-9-19-67.TAMAQUABlaker 1-0-0-2, Miller 0-0-0-0, Rottet 9-8-11-29, Ty. Skripko 3-0-0-6, MacDonald 2-2-3-6, Kosciolek 8-2-4-19, Shilko 1-0-0-2, Zuber 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 24-12-18-64.Pleasant Vy. 15 24 11 11 6 - 67Tamaqua 15 6 17 23 3 - 64Three-pointers: PV Navarez 3, Mikulski 2, Sharpe 1, Marbury 1, Wisser 3. T - Rottet 3, Kosciolek 1