Off shooting, streaks of turnovers, and lacking communication for periods of time will all contribute to hurting a basketball team's chances of winning a game.

For Pleasant Valley, that dry spell occurred nearly immediately, as East Stroudsburg North took advantage and took a 13-2 lead out of the gates, and eventually prevailed, 60-42, in an Eastern Pennsylvania Conference match-up Tuesday."If you start the game strong and get the first few points, you want to continue that momentum," Pleasant Valley head coach Matt Gould said. "It wasn't because we weren't getting good looks. We got the ball around the rim, we had some wide open jump shots, but that (slow start) hurt."Meanwhile, North head coach Jon DeJesus is aware of his team's strengths, and was glad to see their pressure working to their advantage."We're better when we're up and down the court, and not so much in the half-court sets," DeJesus said. "For us, our biggest thing is to just force the tempo. We have the athletes to compete, and teams like (PV), we wanted to push them and hopefully force them into turnovers or bad shots, and that's the style we want to play."That attack was employed throughout a majority of the game, and the Panthers utilized it to their advantage to take a 14-6 lead after one.Nine first-period turnovers by the Bears, along with a 2-for-10 showing from the floor, yielded the poor early showing. In the second, the victors ballooned their lead to 35-20 at the break, as Arjan Azemi totaled 17 of his game-high 19 points in the first 16 minutes. Teammate Darin Bellinger nailed a pair of treys and scored eight of his 13 during the same stretch."Those guys are playing well as of late," DeJesus said. "Along with (Devontea) Wiggins, those are our big three, and that's been our year thus far. If we can get a couple of guys to fill in those other roles, we can be a pretty tough team to beat."The 9-6 Panthers benefit from the 'twin towers' in Bellinger and Wiggins, who both are over 6-5. After the intermission, Wiggins scored 10 of his team's next 18 points to pad the lead.Meanwhile, the Bears dropped to 5-8 overall, prompting Gould to say, "Their defense, a credit to them, they're big, they pressure the ball constantly, but they're a good, solid team. Some of the shots we took tonight were just selfish."THE SAME PAGE ... Gould is hoping his team plays more like he knows they're capable of playing, saying, "We have to get our guys all to stay together as a group. We need to stop pointing fingers and have them ask themselves, 'What can I do to get better?' or 'What can I do to make my team better?'"DIGITS, PLEASE? ... Despite their height advantage, the Panthers only held a 33-32 rebounding edge, while committing 15 turnovers to the Bears' 19. The Panthers shot 22-59 from the floor (37 percent), while the Bears connected on 15-of-56 (27 percent).CUBS WIN! ... In the JV game, Pleasant Valley posted a 56-43 win behind 18 points from Andrius Gaddist and 14 from Ashton Smith.EAST STROUDSBURG NORTHA. Azemi 6-6-7-19, Noble 1-0-0-2, Bellinger 5-1-2-13, Bavila 0-0-0-0, Wilkins 1-0-0-2, Richards 0-0-0-0, Wiggins 4-5-8-13, Mills 1-0-0-2, Brown 0-0-0-0, Reed 0-0-0-0, Miller 0-0-0-0, B. Azemi 2-0-0-5, Enyosiobi 2-0-0-4. TOTALS: 22-12-17-60.PLEASANT VALLEYAulder 0-0-0-0, Robinson 4-0-0-8, Barker 1-2-2-4, Stivala 0-1-2-1, Howard 4-0-0-10, B. Newhart 0-0-0-0, Richardson 3-0-0-6, Munford 1-4-5-6, Gaddist 2-0-0-4, N. Newhart 0-0-0-0, Scarboro 0-0-0-0, Gerolimatos 0-0-0-0, Rosario 0-0-0-0, Duviello 0-0-0-0, Prator 0-3-4-3. TOTALS: 15-10-13-42.ES North 14 21 12 13 - 60Pleasant Vy. 6 14 10 12 - 42Three pointers: ESN - Bellinger 2, A. Azemi 1, B. Azemi 1; PV - Howard 2.