There are some games that teams and their coaches try to forget and turn the page to the next one on their schedule.

One such game was played Thursday night by the Panther Valley girls when very little seemed to click on both ends of the court in a 52-41 Schuylkill League loss to Minersville.

“I was very disappointed in our overall effort,” said PV head coach Rob Kovac. “I thought that Minersville played harder, better, and smarter than we did for pretty much the whole game.”

Despite shooting just 23 percent in the opening eight minutes, the game was tied with 1:10 left in the period.

Perhaps the basketball gods were on the side of the Battlin’ Miners when Alayna Boom drilled a long buzzer-beating three-pointer 19 seconds after her teammate — Eva Ladick — sank two free throws, giving the Miners a five-point edge after one period.

The start of the second period went well for the Panthers. Lucy Kocha’s baseline three-ball and Ace Aponte’s driving layup tied the game at 17, but it would be the last time the home team would tie or grab a lead for the remainder of the game.

Following intermission, the lid on the PV side of the basket stayed locked.

Minersville lengthened its three-point halftime lead to 14 points by the end of the period that started with a 13-1 run. Boom scored five of her game-high 19 points, and Jenna Cullen added eight to give the Miners a 41-27 advantage heading into the final period.

“For whatever reason, we didn’t show up tonight,” said Kovac. “We’re not healthy, but that’s no excuse. Every team deals with adversity at some point in the season.

“We didn’t play defense. We didn’t get stops. Give credit to Minersville. We beat them at their place in early December, but we saw tonight how much they have improved tonight.”

The Panthers’ full-court pressure did not change their fortunes. Baskets by PV’s Aponte and Caroline Breslin cut the visitors’ lead to 10 at 43-33 with half the period left to play, but the Panthers never threatened after Breslin’s driving layup kept the deficit at 10 points with only 1:11 left on the clock.

“We’ve been inconsistent all year,” said Kovac. “A few week ago, I thought we played very well despite a three-point loss against Tamaqua, but we haven’t taken that next step yet to improve our play each game.”

Kovac said that the remedy for fixing their issues begins today at practice.

“We will work on details to improve our zone defense to close the gaps and stop the penetration, and we have to be better at defending the three-point shot, which we did not do well tonight.”

Aponte led the Panthers with 17 points. Morgan Orsulak added 10.

SHOOT TO SCORE … The Panthers played the first two minutes of the third period without taking a shot from the floor, and scored only one basket in the session, a three-pointer by Aponte.

NO HELP FOR THE HOME TEAM … Minersville did not score from the floor until the 4:30 mark of the final period. The Panthers managed to cut the lead to 10 on free throws by Orsulak, but they were unable to close the gap from there.

UP NEXT …The Panthers travel to Jim Thorpe on Saturday.

MINERSVILLE

Boom 6-2-4-19, Cullen 5-6-6-17, Ladick 1-4-4-6, Ilsley 2-1-2-5, McGrath 1-1-2-3, Cruz 1-0-0-2, Brennan 0-0-4-0, Starner 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 16-14-22-52.

PANTHER VALLEY

Aponte 7-2-4-17, Orsulak 2-6-10-10, Breslin 3-0-0-6, Gjoca 1-1-2-4, Kocha 1-1-3-4, Prudente 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 14-10-19-41.

Minersville 17 7 17 11 - 52

Panther Vy. 12 9 6 14 - 41

Three-pointers: Minersville - Boom 5, Cullen 1; Panther Valley - Gjoca 1, Kocha 1, Aponte 1.

Records: Minersville (2-12; 1-8); Panther Valley (5-10; 1-8).