Pleasant Valley basketball coach Matt Gould knew that his team had won a tough game at Pocono Mountain East the previous night. He also knew that the 5:30 tip-off for the Bears' game on Thursday against East Stroudsburg South was an unusual starting time.

Gould also knew that neither of those facts should be used as excuses.Excuses or not, the Bears struggled early and never recovered as they dropped a 48-28 Eastern Pennsylvania Conference decision.Pleasant Valley hosted East Stroudsburg South in a boys/girls varsity doubleheader that featured the Lady Bears' Senior Night festivities, pushing the boys game into the earlier, opening game start."That shouldn't have been a reason to attribute to our slow start," said Gould. "We have to play hard no matter the circumstances. It was just bad basketball by us."Eight turnovers in each of the first two frames of play along with a 1-for-15 shooting performance from the floor produced a 22-2 halftime lead for the Cavaliers."We're not a very big team," East Stroudsburg South head coach Shawn Munford said. "So we have to take advantage of our speed. On top of them having a bad night shooting and not being able to make a shot, we got the chance to speed them up a little bit and that went well for us."Greg Eck opened the contest with a drive down the lane and followed it up with a trey and two fast break layup as the Cavaliers build a 13-2 first quarter lead. South then threw a second-period shutout to build its commanding halftime lead."I think we got the confluence of a perfect storm," Munford said. "They couldn't make a shot and we played well early on."Eck piled on four more to start the third and Isaiah Bradley added a drive for a 28-2 lead, before the lid finally came off the basketball for Pleasant Valley.Four different Bears scored before the end of the third for a 36-11 deficit. In the fourth, Valentino Rosario put in seven to lead his team back to respect, as the Bears actually matched East Stroudsburg South in the second half (26-26)."At halftime, we told them, 'what are you gonna do? It was a terrible half, just come out and play in the second," Gould said. "Then, at the end of the third, beginning of the fourth, we saw some good things, but it was too late at that point."ELIMINATED ... The loss dropped the Bears to 7-12 overall and eliminated them from District 11 playoff contention.WHAT THE ECK ... The Cavaliers' Eck was impressive, hitting shots from all over the court. He finished the contest with a game-high 23 points.EAST STROUDSBURG SOUTHLopez 0-0-0-0, Eck 8-6-6-23, Bradley 3-1-2-7, Kross 2-2-2-7, Rodriguez 0-0-0-0, Raso 1-1-2-3, Murphy 0-0-0-0, Bruce 2-0-0-4, Malos 1-0-0-2, Hamilton 1-0-0-2, Parks 0-0-0-0, Patterson 0-0-0-0, DeSantis 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 18-10-12-48.PLEASANT VALLEYAulder 2-0-2-4, Robinson 0-0-0-0, Barker 2-0-0-4, Stivala 0-0-0-0, Howard 1-0-0-2, Richardson 0-0-0-0, Neubert 1-1-2-3, Scarboro 2-0-1-4, Gerolimatos 0-0-0-0, Rosario 1-5-5-7, Duviello 2-0-0-4, Pratos 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 11-6-10-28.ES South 13 9 14 12 - 48Pleasant Valley 2 0 9 17 - 28Three pointers: ESS - Kross 1, Eck 1; PV - none.