It took Lehighton coach Michael O'Brien just one possession to realize his team could have a problem.

It took Pleasant Valley's Nick Stanovick just two shots to realize it could be him.Stanovick drilled a pair of three-pointers in the game's opening minutes and finished with a school-record tying seven triples. His hot hand was more than enough to carry Pleasant Valley to a 69-41 Mountain Valley Conference victory over Lehighton on Thursday night."I've been in a pretty good shooting rhythm lately and tonight I was able to continue that," said Stanovick, who had a combined nine three-pointers in the Bears' two previous games. "I hit my first two shots early in the game and that allowed me to relax."I'm definitely a streak shooter and when I'm hitting my shots early that's usually a good sign. My teammates did a good job of finding me when I was open and I was able to get on a nice roll."Stanovick was sizzling the entire night as he hit seven of his first 10 attempts from behind the arc before missing his final two record-breaking attempts.Stanovick had eight points in the first quarter as the Bears built an 18-9 lead. He then drilled three more triples in the second quarter as the advantage grew to 38-21 at halftime."We knew Stanovick was a very good outside shooter and we talked about not letting him get good looks, especially early," said O'Brien. "That's why I called a time out in the first minute of the game after he hit that three-pointer."We didn't want him to get comfortable and we tried to stress that we had to know where he was at all times. But give Pleasant Valley credit. They did a nice job of moving the ball and finding him and he didn't miss when he got his shots."Stanovick hit five of his first six attempts from three-point range in the opening half, and when he wasn't draining bombs from the perimeter his teammates perimeter his teammates were pounding the Indians inside."It's amazing how good an offense looks when you can knock down a couple of outside shots like Nick did tonight," said Pleasant Valley coach Ken Piontkowski. "Once you start doing that, it creates more opportunities to get the ball to the basket."We have players like Selwin (Wright), Tevin (Franklin) and Mike (Sharpe) who have the ability to slash and drive to the basket. They did a nice job of that tonight."The Bears' frontline also controlled the boards, outrebounding Lehighton 28-8 in the opening half."I talked to our kids about how tough Lehighton has played us in this building over the years," said Piontkowski. "I stressed to them that Lehighton is going to come in believing they can beat us and if we aren't ready to play that will happen."So I was happy with the intensity we showed on both ends of the court and on the boards. Our kids worked hard and hustled and didn't take Lehighton lightly."If the Indians (1-15, 0-7) had any hopes of getting back in the game, the Bears quickly dispelled them early in the third quarter.Pleasant Valley scored the first seven points of the second half and outscored Lehighton 21-4 in the third period to open a 59-25 lead.Stanovick finished 25 points to lead the Bears (9-7, 5-3), who moved within one league win or two wins overall of clinching a District 11 playoff berth. Sharpe added 14 points and 12 rebounds."We've taken advantage of some matchups in the last week to put together a nice three-game win streak," said Piontkowski. "That has put us on the verge of obtaining one of our goals a District 11 playoff berth."Lehighton got a nice game from Cordell Wall, who finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds.PLEASANT VALLEYBlot 0-0-0-0, Franklin 3-1-2-7, Wright 3-1-2-7, Sharpe 6-1-2-14, Bok 0-0-0-0, Williams 0-0-0-0, Irving 3-0-0-6, Gerolimates 2-1-2-6, Dekmar 0-0-0-0, Stanovick 9-0-0-25, Brown 0-0-0-0, Guaragna 1-0-0-2, Wild 1-0-0-2. TOTALS: 28-4-8-69.LEHIGHTOND. Rossino 5-1-1-12, Farano 2-0-0-5, Kresge 0-0-0-0, Guyn 2-2-2-6, Scott 1-3-4-5, Wall 5-0-0-10, Szacska 0-0-0-0, Jones 0-0-0-0, Evans 1-1-1-3, A. Rossino 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 16-7-8-41.Pleasant Vy. 18 20 21 10 - 69Lehighton 9 12 4 16 - 41Three-pointers: PV - Stanovick 7, Sharpe 1, Gerolimates 1. L - D. Rossino 1, Farano 1.