Last week was a tough one for the Panther Valley girls basketball team.

They played four games in five days, two of them on away courts.

But it ended with a new dawn, not a dusk.

That fourth game was Saturday afternoon against Pleasant Valley. The Panthers looked a bit sluggish for the first few minutes of the game but once they shook the fatigue they rolled to an impressive 57-28 win.

Despite being a bit lethargic at the start, Panther Valley still took early control with an 8-0 lead a little midway through quarter one. The Carbon squad never lost the lead. After the first quarter, it never even got close.

One big reason for the easy win was the outstanding showing by 5-11 senior Morgan Orsulak. The ebullient 5-11 forward, who is headed to Arcadia University for volleyball, racked up a season-high 28 points, including 12 of her team’s 19 in the third quarter.

From the floor, she made 11 of 16 attempts: an impressive 69 percent. At the foul line, she was also potent, sinking six of eight. Plus she snared six rebounds — four of them defensive — and tallied six steals.

Contributing to Orsulak’s stellar performance was teamwork displayed by her peers that was nothing less than exemplary.

Fellow senior Caroline Breslin scored 12 points. She also had four steals, four rebounds and two assists. Junior Lucy Kocha had five rebounds, four steals and one assist.

Freshman Danika Blazosky came off the bench and pulled down seven rebounds and scored eight points. Another freshman, Ace Aponte, had four steals, three rebounds, one assist and six points.

“Morgan was really good today, and the surrounding pieces did more than a good job of getting Morgan the ball,” said Panther Valley head coach Rob Kovac. “Lucy, Caroline, Ace. They really did a good job. Danika gave us so many good minutes.

“We’re trying to make the kids tougher, and we stress toughness. I thought we got that from Blazosky today.”

Orsulak, who just a few days ago got her 1,000th career point, said, “I think after the hard week we had, we wanted to end the week good, so I knew coming into this game we needed to play hard, play aggressive, and play with that little extra that we have.

“I think our press today (performed) really well. I think it helped us get in transition more, especially finding everyone that was open. And getting those steals (a total of 19 by the Panthers), getting in front of the ball and dishing it off, and finding each other on the court, I think that helped us a lot.”

Pleasant Valley Coach Angela Zimmerman, always an optimist, said her team is young but she saw a lot of promise despite the setback.

“They work hard every day,” Zimmerman said of the younger players on her team. “Our JV squad is working hard. They practice all together. We have a young team, but we’re improving every day.”

She especially had praise for freshman Noelle Wolff, who along with junior Lily Hower, combined for 12 points. Wolff also had three rebounds and two steals.

“I give a lot of credit to our freshman forward Noelle,” she said. “She puts in a lot of work, she hasn’t backed down, she hasn’t quit and she stays mentally strong the entire game.”

She praised the Panthers for their performance, saying, “They have a great post player. They have a strong freshman guard, too. They are disciplined and they are very patient.”

For Panther Valley, it still has a chance to make the district playoffs.

“We’re at the point where we dug ourselves a hole,” said Kovac. “We’ve got to get some wins coming up in the future, and we’re going to keep plugging.

“I told the kids prior to the game, ‘The season is about half over and there’s a lot of basketball still to be played. As long as we keep getting better, we’ll get to where we want to be.’”

TEAM STATISTICS ... Panther Valley shot 19-of-40 on two-point field goal attempts, for 47.5 percent. Overall, they fired 21-of-56 for 37.5 percent. The Bears didn’t take as many shots. They hit 11-of-24 for 45.8 percent. In rebounding, the Panthers grabbed 31 compared to 14 for Pleasant Valley. The Panthers had 19 steals compared to 11 for the Bears, with eight of those coming in the first half.

BACK TO LEAGUE PLAY ... The Panthers return to Schuylkill League competition tonight when they play North Schuylkill. They have three home games this week. They host Minersville on Thursday and face Jim Thorpe on Saturday. Pleasant Valley travels to East Stroudsburg South in a league game tonight, then to Bethlehem Catholic on Thursday. They play at home again on Saturday when they greet Bangor.

PLEASANT VALLEY

Rothrock 1-0-0-2, Cappaletti 2-0-0-4, Merklin 1-0-0-2, Knapp 0-1-2-1, Krasniqi 0-0-0-0, Shillady 1-0-0-2, Allie 1-0-0-2, Hower 2-2-2-6, A. Fuentes 0-0-0-0, K. Fuentes 1-1-2-3, DeRohn 0-0-0-0, Wolff 2-2-2-6. TOTALS: 11-6-8-28.

PANTHER VALLEY

Gjoca 0-0-0-0, Kocha 1-1-2-3, K. Breslin 0-0-0-0, O’Brien 0-0-0-0, Rolon 0-0-0-0, Aponte 2-2-4-6, Blazosky 3-2-2-8, C. Breslin 4-2-3-12, Prudente 0-0-0-0, Alabovitz 0-0-0-0, Orsulak 11-6-8-28, Goida 0-0-0-0, Carrasquillo 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 21-13-19-57.

Pleasant Valley 5 8 12 3 - 28

Panther Valley 14 17 19 7 - 57

Three-Pointers: Pleasant Valley - None; Panther Valley - C. Breslin 2.

Records: Pleasant Valley (1-12); Panther Valley (5-8).