It takes a lot of effort to climb out of a deep hole.

As you struggle to make progress, often times you slip back down.

And the more you try to get out, the more energy you use - and the tougher it becomes.

On Friday night, the Panther Valley girls found themselves in that proverbial hole. Visiting Blue Mountain forced numerous turnovers in the first quarter and a half to build a substantial lead.

While the Panthers fought back multiple times, they could never crawl out and ended up dropping a 45-33 Schuylkill League contest.

“One of the keys was to make our defense create easy offense,” said Eagles head coach Rose Carper. “And we 100% did that in the first quarter. We came out kind of on fire and created turnovers, which allowed us to get some offense going. That gave us some confidence.”

Blue Mountain forced 12 PV miscues in the opening frame as the visitors raced to a 16-6 advantage. Kylie Conway hit two three-pointers in the period and ended the quarter with eight points.

After Kierstan Faust hit a follow-up shot early in the second, the margin reached a dozen.

“We worked on (breaking their press) and I thought we executed what we wanted to do,” said Panther Valley mentor Rob Kovac. “We were making mistakes once we broke the press, which was kind of disappointing. We spent two days in practice on it, and I thought we had a pretty good scheme for how to attack them.

“We weren’t patient. We were crossing halfcourt, and we were just too sped up. It took us about a quarter and a half to settle down. I thought we played really good basketball, but unfortunately we were down about 10 at that point. We did battle back.”

The Panthers (4-2; 2-1) closed the half with a solid run, which started with a Brenna McAndrew putback. Maddison Maynard hit a three-pointer, and Morgan Orsulak scored twice to complete a 9-0 run that pulled the home team within 18-15.

Blue Mountain, however, once again had a solid start to a half as it opened the third quarter with a 9-4 spurt to push the lead back to double digits. Makayla Keck hit two baskets, one a trey, to key that stretch.

“At halftime, we talked about how we need to learn how to play with a lead and not be so rushed on offense,” said Carper. “We need to move the ball around a little bit more offensively and understand that we have the lead and can take a little bit of break on offense to catch our breath, so we can get back and play some more defense. But I think we did kind of regroup there.”

The Panthers also regrouped, as their defense gave them a chance to pull out a victory.

Kaidence Krapft hit a layup, and Maynard was perfect at the line two straight trips to whittle the margin to four points early in the fourth quarter. During that comeback, PV’s defense caused six turnovers in seven Eagle possessions.

“We played hard enough, and we defended well enough to win, but we just didn’t execute on offense well enough,” said Kovac. “A lot of that has to do with us, but a lot of that also has to do with the defense Blue Mountain played.”

Once again, the Eagles (3-1; 2-1) responded to Panther Valley’s comeback attempt. Hailey Place knocked down two shots and Conway drilled another three-pointer to build the lead to 36-25. PV could only get as close as seven the rest of the way, as Blue Mountain hit five free throws in the closing minutes to seal the win.

“We’ve been struggling a little bit on the line recently, so it was nice to see us hit some of the foul shots down the stretch,” said Carper. “We kept our heads when they fought back.”

“The big picture, a few years ago this would have been a mercy rule game,” said Kovac. “And we were down just four in the fourth tonight. We told the kids this isn’t a race, it’s a marathon. We still have a lot of the season left, and I’m excited to see how much better we get as it goes on because I think we’re close.”

LEADING SCORERS ... PV’s Maynard finished with a game-high 21 points, while Orsulak added eight. Conway, despite being in foul trouble most of the night, ended with 17. Keck and Emily Heydt both chipped in with nine.

ROUGH FROM OUTSIDE ... The Panthers had a poor shooting night, especially from the perimeter. PV ended 1-of-14 from three-point range.

BLUE MOUNTAIN

Faust 1-0-0-2, Conway 6-2-5-17, Heydt 2-5-10-9, Gibson 0-0-0-0, Keck 3-2-2-9, Henninger 1-0-0-3, Place 2-0-0-4, Campbell 0-1-2-1, Armenise 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 15-10-19-45.

PANTHER VALLEY

Krapf 1-0-0-2, Kocha 0-0-0-0, Vermillion 0-0-0-0, Maynard 7-6-8-21, Breslin 0-0-0-0, Orsulak 4-0-0-8, Yuricheck 0-0-0-0, McAndrew 1-0-0-2. TOTALS: 13-6-8-33.

Blue Mountain 16 4 9 16 - 45

Panther Valley 6 9 8 10 - 33

Three-pointers: Blue Mountain - Conway 3, Keck 1, Henninger 1; Panther Valley - Maynard 1.