A basketball game often has scoring margins that open up insurmountable leads for the winning team, and that seemed to be the case Tuesday night in Brodheadsville.

But just when one may have thought that Pocono Mountain West was about to put Pleasant Valley away, the underdog Bears spun one rally after another.

In the end, however, PV’s efforts fell short as it dropped a 69-55 Eastern Pennsylvania Conference decision to the Panthers.

After taking a brief 4-2 lead on a layup by Samuel Knudsen with a minute gone by, West - led by 6-10 senior and Division 1 commit Christian Fermin - showed off its fastbreak offense with a 20-6 run. The scoring spurt was highlighted by a steal, full-court dribble and slam dunk by Fermin, who scored 12 of his game-high 22 points in the first eight minutes.

But the pesky Bears, now 3-8 on the season, roared back.

Jarod Moore brought the home crowd to their feet when he floated a running one-hander over Fermin that dropped in at the first-period buzzer. After West extended its lead to 14 points, the Bears used a 7-1 mini-run to cut the margin to eight.

With a minute to go before intermission, PV’s Patrick Moore drilled a three-pointer. Ryan Blass’s put-back 30 seconds later cut the Panthers’ lead to just four. Fermin was fouled with 19 seconds to go and sank two free throws to give his team a 36-30 edge going into the third period.

Panthers’ coach Rich Williams has been frustrated with his team’s inability to put teams away so far this season.

“We’re not keeping our foot on the gas pedal,” Williams said. “If we expect to be a championship-caliber team, we have to stop letting teams climb back after we get double digit leads.”

Bears’ mentor Bobby Hahn was pleased with his team’s efforts, especially against such a towering force as Fermin.

“It’s tough to game plan against him,” said Hahn. “He’s not just big and can score inside, but he showed he’s an outstanding player with his outside shooting as well. You really can’t replicate a practice against him, and he’s such an unselfish player.

“They like to get the ball inside to him where he then kicks it out for an open shot. Overall, as the game went on though, I think we did a pretty good job of denying him the ball.”

At the start of the third period, Patrick Moore brought the crowd to their feet again with a three-point shot off the glass that edged the Bears closer at 36-33. But West scored the next three baskets to go up by nine.

Moore struck for another three and Donald Francois Jr. replicated the feat, and just like that the Bears were only down 42-39 with 4:45 left in the third.

West regrouped and lifted its lead back to 10 points on a baseline jumper by Justin Love and a put-back by Fermin, but Jarod Moore’s bucket at the buzzer kept the Bears within range at 53-46 going into the fourth.

That’s when the Panthes’ Julian Pagan scored 12 of his 16 points to secure the win for the visitors.

“We told our team to take control in the final eight minutes,” said Williams, “and Julian responded to the challenge. He was the difference at the end.”

After the game, Hahn said this was yet another game the Bears could have won.

“We’ve had several close losses,” said Hahn. “We’re still trying to learn how to win, and this is the group that should get us more wins. We’ll see what happens from here.”

Pleasant Valley’s scoring was led by Patrick Moore with 13 points. Blass added 11.

VIRGINIA BOUND ... Pocono Mountain West’s Fermin will play next year for the Virginia Commonwealth University Rams, who have a 10- 6 record so far this season.

THE ROAR FOR MOORE ... Several times during the game, Bears’ fans jumped to their feet to applaud the outstanding play of guard Jarod Moore. The junior scored on several athletic shots against a collapsing defense by West, who have four starters ranging between 6-2 and 6-10.

FOUL BALL ... The Panthers shot 24 free throws in the game, making 13, while the Bears went to the charity stripe just three times, all by Jarod Moore, who sank two of his three attempts.

POCONO MOUNTAIN WEST

Fermin 8-5-10-22, Pagan 5-6-7-16, Savage 7-0-2-15, Smith 4-1-2-9, Sakwa 1-1-2-4, Love 1-0-1-3, Stewart 0-0-0-0, Brito 0-0-0-0, Espinosa 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 26-13-24-69.

PLEASANT VALLEY

P. Moore 5-0-0-13, J. Moore 5-2-3-12, Blass 5-0-0-11, Francois Jr. 2-0-0-5, Knudsen 2-0-0-4, Williams 1-0-0-3, Ratti 1-0-0-3, Dixson 1-0-0-2, L. Pandolfo 1-0-0-2, Hallenbeck 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 23-2-3-55.

PM West 22 14 17 16 - 69

Pleasant Valley 12 18 16 9 - 55

Three-pointers: PM West - Love 1, Sakwa 1, Fermin 1, Savage 1; Pleasant Valley - P.Moore 3, Blass 1, Francois 1, Williams 1, Ratti 1.