It’s no secret what Catasauqua wants to do on the basketball floor.

Pleasant Valley knew it entering Monday’s Slatington Rotary Tournament matchup, but unfortunately the Bears just couldn’t stop it.

The Roughies like an uptempo pace, creating turnovers on defense and getting into a transition game. And that’s exactly what they did at the outset against PV, racing to an huge lead early and cruising to a 73-50 victory.

The win sends Catty into tonight’s championship game against Bethlehem Christian, while the Bears face host Northern Lehigh in the consolation contest.

“They wanted to play fast,” said Pleasant Valley head coach Joe Berezwick. “Give credit to Catasauqua. They came out ready to go ... They want to create those turnovers, and they executed their gameplan quite well.

“We talked about and emphasized taking care of the basketball. We wanted to limit our turnovers and if we could do that to start, we felt we’d be in alright shape. But we started the game turning the ball over and they made us pay for that.”

The Roughies didn’t waste any time grabbing gaining the advantage. They forced six turnovers during the Bears’ first eight possessions and converted at the other end.

Reece Lopez opened the scoring with a pair of three-pointers, and Frankie Pujols and Caiden Weaver both hit a pair of inside shots to put Catty ahead 16-2 less than five minutes into the contest.

“We wanted to pressure them, pressure their guards and make them speed the game up as much as we could,” said longtime Rough Rider mentor Eric Snyder. “We wanted to get the ball upcourt and go.

“(Lopez) was hot ... When he’s on, he’s tough to stop. He actually doesn’t drive much, but he also drove pretty well tonight.”

Two more PV miscues and five more points from Pujols — including a three-pointer that allowed him to reach 1,000 in his career — upped the score to 25-7.

“My son coached him in fifth grade and you could see he was a player back then,” said Snyder about Pujols. “He would’ve started as a freshman ... but he broke his ankle. He came back with about four games left or he would have had a thousand last year.

“He does more than just score. He’s like a second coach out there. He makes everybody better.”

Pleasant Valley actually played better in the latter stages of the second quarter, but by that time Catty had extended the gap to 23 points thanks to more scoring from Pujols and Lopez. The Bears used an 11-5 run, with five points from Sebastian Sacci, to get it back to an 18-point deficit.

“We wanted to not pick up the tempo because that’s kind of their game, but at the same time we wanted to try and create some havoc, so we tried to do some different things,” said Berezwick. “We were better in the second quarter.”

Unfortunately for Berezwick and the Bears, the Roughies scored 12 of the game’s next 14 points — six from Lopez — to push the lead to 59-29, which initiated the mercy rule.

“We talked about the things we can take away and the things we can learn from, but in basketball the best medicine is being able to play again tomorrow,” said Berezwick. “We just want to be prepared and have the right mindset for tomorrow and hope to do all the right things and put ourselves in a good position to get a win.”

STAT LEADERS ... Lopez scored a game-high 29 points, 19 of them coming in the first half. Pujols finished with 20, with 15 of those coming during the first two quarters. Sacci paced the Bears with 17, although the Roughies kept him off the scoreboard in the first quarter. “He hurt us last year,” said Snyder. “He can go inside, outside, he can do a lot of things well.” Jaxson Haines drilled three treys to end with nine for PV.

REVENGE ... Catasauqua avenged a loss to the Bears in last year’s title game. PV won 48-47 in dramatic fashion when Zach Prator hit a turnaround shot with just seconds remaining.

CATASAUQUA

Pujols 9-0-1-20, Rosado 0-0-0-0, Lopez 8-10-11-29, Bolmer 1-0-0-3, Jenkins 0-0-0-0, Conway 0-0-0-0, Weaver 3-1-1-7, Chaparro 0-0-0-0, Vaz 0-0-0-0, Gonzalez 0-0-0-0, Lorah 2-0-0-5, Roth 0-0-0-0, Nix 4-0-0-9, Delong 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 27-11-13-73.

NORTHERN LEHIGH

Loch 2-4-5-8, Horstman 0-0-0-0, Haines 3-0-2-9, Perry 1-0-0-2, Dorshimer 1-1-2-4, Solt 1-2-2-4, Cordle 0-0-0-0, Wheeler 3-0-0-6, Sacci 8-0-2-17, Sykes 0-0-0-0, Gearhart 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 19-7-13-50.

Catasauqua 25 24 21 3 - 73

Pleasant Valley 10 19 9 12 - 50

Three-pointers: Catasauqua - Lopez 3, Pujols 2, Bolmer 1, Lorah 1, Nix 1; Pleasant Valley - Haines 3, Dorshimer 1, Sacci 1.

Records: Catasauqua (5-2); Pleasant Valley (1-9).