Sometimes you can get a feel at the beginning of a basketball game that one of the two teams on the floor is going to have its way against the other.

You got the feeling that Panther Valley was that team as it rolled to an 80-41 win over Salem Christian Thursday night.

“I liked our focus tonight,” said Panthers head coach Pat Crampsie. “We were excited and we were intense.”

The Panthers’ half-court pressure defense forced turnover after turnover by Salem, which was playing without two starting guards who were sidelined with injuries.

Erik Marchorro, who finished with 17 points for PV, opened the scoring with a driving layup. Bradley Buzzard converted a free throw after a put back for a 5-0 lead, and the Panthers never looked back.

The Eagles (1-2) attempted to close the gap behind the shooting of Justin Rosak, who scored all of his team’s nine points in the opening period as PV spread the points around to all five of its starters.

The Panthers (2-0) blew the game open in the second session. Rene Figueroa, who scored his 1,000th career point in PV’s season-opening victory, got into the flow by nailing two threes and a pretty basket that put the black and gold up 40-17 with under two minutes left before the half. Meanwhile, the Eagles managed only eight shots for just 11 points in the second quarter and went into the locker room trailing by 23 points.

‘We were able to play to our strengths,” said Crampsie. “Apply pressure and allow our playmakers to move the ball up court with quick transitions. I thought we passed well, too, to where we set up not to take a good shot, but to take a great shot.”

Marchorro’s trey from the wing started PV where it had left off in the first half, but Rosak — who scored a game-high 28 points — hit a couple of long threes and Jared Landis cashed in a short jumper to cut the deficit to 18 at 46-28 with three minutes gone by in the third quarter.

Marchorro’s two buckets from the paint within the next 90 seconds chased away any thoughts of a Salem comeback.

Seven different players scored for the Panthers in the third quarter.

“Our half-court game is a work in progress, but I loved the distribution and the shot selection,” said Crampsie.

In the fourth, the Panthers duplicated their 18-9 scoring from the first period. Rene Figueroa led PV with 18 points followed by Marchorro’s 17 as eight other players got on the score sheet, that provided plenty of evidence that the Panthers will be difficult to defend this season.

TURNOVER MACHINE ... Salem turned the ball over to the Panthers 18 times in the first half, and scored just two points more than their total number of errors.

BUCKET BONANZA ... Panther Valley shot just under 50 percent from the floor and sank 8 of 10 shots from the charity stripe.

SALEM CHRISTIAN

Mongam 0-0-0-0, Landis 2-0-0-4, Rosak 9-2-4-28, Schifler 1-2-2 -4, Kase 0-0-0-0. Held 0-0-0-0, Kline 2-0-0-4, Diaz 0-0-0-0, Owmby 0-0-0-0, Reinhart 0-1-2-0. TOTALS: 14-4-8-41.

PANTHER VALLEY

Marchorro 6-2-3-17, Stilitino 3-0-0-9, Buzzard 4-1-1-9, T.Turner 2-0-0-4, Figueroa 5-2-2-18, White 1-3-4-8, Kraft 2-0-0-4, Eidle 0-0-0-0, Hoben 0-0-0-0, Miller 1-0-0-5, Berk 0-0-0-0, G.Turner 1-0-0-2, Brettle 2-0-0-4. TOTALS: 27-8-10-80.

Salem Chr. 9 11 11 9 - 41

Panther Vy. 18 25 19 18 - 80

Three pointers: Salem - Rosak 8; PV - Stilitino 3, Figueroa 2, Marchorro 1, White 1, Miller 1.