Pleasant Valley's Kiki Russell gets a charge out of playing defense.

And if Friday night is any indication, so do the rest of her teammates.The Lady Bears forced numerous turnovers early and contested plenty of shots to race to an early lead against East Stroudsburg South. PV had no trouble maintaining the advantage and cruised to a 37-17 Eastern Pennsylvania Conference victory."I love playing defense," said Russell, who finished the contest with 10 points. "I have an adrenaline rush when I play defense. It feels good to challenge someone and show that I can make something happen without the ball. Defense does win games."The Bears (4-6) came up with nine takeaways in the opening quarter and used them to create offense at the other end. Shante Benjamine hit for five points and Russell added four as the host team jumped out to a 14-3 start."We did well defensively," said Pleasant Valley head coach Nadia Gauronsky. "We forced them into some turnovers and we capitalized on it. And we made our layups, so that was nice."We work on defense every day and we try to create opportunities off our defense. We did a nice job of that tonight."PV continued to induce Cavalier mistakes in the second period, totaling another nine turnovers while building its lead to 21-5."I tell the girls to get up and pressure the guards as best they can and to force the girls into trapping areas or sidelines," said Gauronsky. "I was pleased with the effort tonight. And I'm glad they capitalized on that as well."In addition to the defense, the Bears also benefitted from its inside play. Senior starter Jenesa Fields pumped in five points and pulled down eight rebounds in limited action, as Gauronsky subbed freely to get all her players some valuable time."We try to get the ball inside every night," said Gauronsky. "That's one part of our game that's pretty strong with Jenesa there. She does a really good job inside, having played for four years. With her and Renee Milos, we have a pretty good tandem inside.""They knew we were going to use our bigs so the guards really had to step up and do their job and I think that's what we did," said Russell. "We all worked together as a team. We just didn't rely on the bigs."Benjamine matched Russell's 10 points as PV kept Eastburg South (0-11) winless and looks to improve over the second half of the season."I'm hoping that the girls can overcome some of their earlier mistakes from the beginning of the season," said Gauronsky. "In every game, I want to see the turnovers get less and I want to see them put the ball in the basket a little bit more. If they can do that the rest of the season and get better each game, I'll be happy with that."In the JV game, Pleasant Valley rolled to a 50-18 win. Mikaela Miller led the way with 21 points while Joyce Sullivan added 14.EAST STROUDSBURG SOUTHMcKeller 0-0-0-0, Wilson 0-0-0-0, Schratt 0-0-0-0, Williams 0-0-0-0, Rodriguez 1-5-6-7, Jackson 0-0-0-0, Asher 0-0-0-0, Adams 3-2-4-8, Rivera 1-0-0-2, Britton 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 5-7-10-17.PLEASANT VALLEYSullivan 1-0-0-2, Covart 0-1-2-1, Miller 0-0-0-0, Jones 0-1-2-1, Francis 1-0-0-2, Iovino 0-0-0-0, Richardson 0-0-0-0, Keefer 0-0-0-0, Borden 0-1-2-1, Russell 5-0-0-10, Fields 2-1-2-5, Salmon 0-1-2-1, Milos 2-0-0-4, Benjamine 4-1-2-10. TOTALS: 15-6-12-37.ES South 3 2 6 6 - 17Pleasant Vy. 14 7 4 12 - 37Three-pointers: ES South - None; Pleasant Vy. - Benjamine 1.