EMMAUS - Playoff basketball is no time for a bad habit to crop up for a team.

But that’s exactly what happened to the Pleasant Valley girls on Tuesday.

The Bears uncharacteristically turned the ball over 26 times in a 42-25 District 11 Class 6A opening-round loss to Emmaus. Of those turnovers, 21 came in the first half as Emmaus opened a 20-7 lead that Pleasant Valley was never able to overcome.

“One thing we did well all season long was we didn’t turn the ball over,” said Bears’ coach Dan Muir. “I told them that we turned the ball over a lot, and we were still only down by 13 and they realized that and took care of it in the third quarter, and we really battled back.”

Pleasant Valley (3-8) came out looking like a different team to start the third quarter. Ella Muir hit an early three-pointer and didn’t stop, hitting two more in the quarter and scoring 12 of her game-high 14 points coming out of halftime.

In all, the Bears put up 18 points in the quarter, and at one point were down by just six. Muir’s second three-pointer drew Pleasant Valley to within nine, and her third made it an eight-point game. Samantha Merklin hit a three-pointer with just :38 left in the third that made it a 31-25 game.

Unfortunately for Pleasant Valley, the Emmaus defense, which played a role in forcing some of the miscues by the Bears, regrouped over the final quarter.

Emmaus (5-6) completely shut down the Bears offense, holding them scoreless over the final eight minutes. Combining the second and fourth quarters, Pleasant Valley scored just two points in the two quarters, both coming on foul shots from Muir.

“I was so happy and proud that our girls came out after halftime and didn’t give an inch. They held their heads high and just went out and played like it was a tie game. In the end, we couldn’t come all the way back, but we fought hard,” said Muir. “At this time of the year, seniors can kind of take over and they have a more experienced team than we do, and I think that was a big difference.”

The Emmaus offense has been inconsistent this season, but it was able to get scoring from several different players, including a team-high 12 points from Kameron Watkins, and 10 points from senior Marah Sisonick. Emmaus also got 10 points in the game from its bench players.

The loss ends the season for Pleasant Valley, while Emmaus will face top-seeded Nazareth Thursday night in the quarterfinals of the tournament.

“With a young team like this, I told the girls that I am so proud of them for buying into what we were trying to do and for how they come into work every day,” said Muir. “A lot of girls’ teams don’t get in their opponent’s face and contest shots, and our girls do because we’re too young and we don’t have a ton of depth, so we have to play that way.”

Y’ALL COME BACK ... When Muir talks about having a young team, he isn’t kidding. While the Bears lost four seniors from last year’s team, they don’t lose any players this time around. The roster features seven juniors, four sophomores and three freshmen. The starting lineup had three juniors, a sophomore, and a freshman.

WHAT A YEAR ... Many didn’t believe that there would even be a winter sports season because of coronavirus concerns. Not only was there a season, but they’ve been able to go into a postseason, something that coach Muir was pleased with. “We didn’t know what was going to happen. We just started playing games and adapted to everything, and here we are in districts. You have to hand it to the kids because they adapted to masks and no fans and all of the other protocols just because they wanted to play this game, and that’s impressive.”

PLEASANT VALLEY

Williams 0-0-0-0, Gaddist 0-0-0-0, Muir 4-3-4-14, Honadel 0-0-0-0, Morgan 2-0-0-6, Merklin 1-0-0-3, Mattson 1-0-0-2, TOTALS: 8-3-4-25

EMMAUS

Rollins 0-2-2-2, Inman 3-2-4-8, Watkins 4-2-4-12, Sisonick 5-0-0-10, Oglesbee 1-0-0-2, Hoch 0-0-0-0, Brader 0-0-0-0, Klemick 1-0-0-2, Quiggle 2-2-7-6, Martin 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 16-8-17-42

Pleasant Valley 5 2 18 0 - 25

Emmaus 11 9 14 8 - 42

Three-pointers: Pleasant Valley – Muir 3, Morgan 2, Merklin 1; Emmaus – Watkins 2