It was a tough start to the season for the Pleasant Valley girls basketball team.

Losses, postponements and the holiday break combined to send the Lady Bears into the second week of January with just one victory.In desperate need of a cure for its winter blues, the last four days have been just what the doctor order for Pleasant Valley.Monday night's 46-20 Mountain Valley Conference victory over Lehighton was the Bears' third straight double figure victory.The winning streak evens Pleasant Valley's overall record at 4-4 and pushes its league record to 3-2. It also has provided the perfect start to a brutal 12-day stretch that will see the Bears play eight games."We got off to a slow start this season," said Pleasant Valley coach Nadia Gauronsky. "We played some pretty good teams and we struggled."But the last few days we've put together three pretty nice performances against Pocono Mountain East, Wilson and Lehighton."Last night's victory against the Indians was probably Pleasant Valley's most impressive stretch of basketball this season.Behind the scoring of Keri Dekmar and Jenesa Fields, the Bears scored the game's first 12 points.Lehighton finally got on the board late in the first quarter, but Pleasant Valley answered that with a dominating 18-0 second quarter blitz to build a 30-4 halftime lead."I was happy with how we started the game," said Gauronsky. "I thought our girls played with energy, passion and a lot of hustle. We played aggressively on defense and were able to force a number of turnovers."We then did a nice job of converting the defensive stops into offensive points. We don't have the big scorer that we've had the last few seasons so it's important that we get some points off our defense."Pleasant Valley forced 30 turnovers in the contest, including nine during their huge second quarter run.Keri Russel had three steals and six points during the Bears' big second quarter. Jordan Meckes came off the bench to add four points."No excuses," said Lehighton coach Eric Gidney. "Pleasant Valley played aggressive and physical on the defense end and made it hard for us to run our offense. Everything that went right for us on Saturday (in a win over Panther Valley), went wrong for us tonight."But I'm all about looking ahead. We have to have the mindset that this game is in the past. We have to learn from it, move on, and get better the next time we get on the court."Pleasant Valley continued to build its lead early in the second half before Gauronsky went to her bench early and often. A total of 16 different PV players saw action for the Bears with 14 of them getting shots and nine hitting the scoring column.Russel was the game's only double figure scorer, finishing with 10 points."I thought our guards were excellent tonight," said Gauronsky. "They kept the pressure on Lehighton's ballhandlers, forced mistakes, and got us off to a great start."Lehighton had been playing pretty well coming into the game. But our guards especially Kiki (Russel), Keri (Dekmar) and Julia (Craig) did an excellent job of taking them out of what they were trying to do offensively."Tiff Thompson had four points and a team high seven rebounds for Lehighton (4-7, 2-4).PLEASANT VALLEYMeckes 1-2-2-4, Dekmar 3-1-2-7, Scott 1-0-1-2, Jones 0-0-0-0, Schaudeck 0-0-0-0, Krcic 3-1-2-7, Keefer 0-0-0-0, Borger 1-0-0-2, Miller 0-0-0-0, Russel 4-2-2-10, Dorney 1-1-2-3, Craig 1-1-2-3, Fields 2-0-0-4, Milos 2-0-0-4, Barker 0-0-0-0, Beagle 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 18-8-13-46.LEHIGHTONRossino 1-0-1-2, Durishon 1-2-3-4, Scott 0-0-0-0, Whiteman 1-0-0-2, Fital 0-0-0-0, Blasiak 0-2-2-2, Smith 0-0-0-0, Bollinger 0-2-4-2, Thompson 1-2-4-4, Rehrig 2-0-0-4. TOTALS: 6-8-14-20.Pleasant Vy. 12 18 10 6 - 46Lehighton 4 0 4 12 - 20Three-pointers: None.