With the outcome already decided in last night's game against Stroudsburg, Pleasant Valley's Joyce Sullivan converted a three-point jump shot at the buzzer that typified the Bears' last three weeks of their season. The ball hit the back of the rim, bounced straight up and then fell straight down through the net.

Pleasant Valley's up and down run toward the playoffs fell short in a 41-37 loss to the Lady Mountaineers.Sitting at 4-10 just a few weeks back, not many people would have said the Bears had any chance to make the district playoffs. Coach Natalie Gauransky's very young team then stopped making the mistakes that inexperienced players make and put together an amazing six-game winning streak to get to the qualifying .500 record. Needing to win one of its final two games, the Bears then lost to Pocono Mountain West, which meant they had to defeat Stroudsburg last night."I think we put too much pressure on ourselves," said Gauransky. ''As well as our young players had played during the winning streak, they were a little too tight tonight."Give Stroudsburg credit. Coming in at 5-15, they had nothing really to play for as far as their record was concerned."'We stressed keeping our focus for this game said Mountaineer coach, Matt Field. "They beat us at our place by three points so we used that s motivation. And we hit some key free throws late in the game which has been our weakness all season."Stroudsburg was focused right from the start. Angelica Byra scored the first hoop of the game on a side jumper with 35 seconds gone by. Then Natalia McLaren's two free throws with a minute to go in the period gave her team a 10-4 advantage. Meanwhile, the diameter of the rim seemed smaller for the Lady Bears as they shot just nine of 27 from the floor in the first half."We had open looks, but the ball just wouldn't go in," said Gauransky.Despite their poor shooting, the Bears' deficit was only four the half."Our second half plan was to open up their zone so we could drive through the seams," said Gauransky.The strategy worked as the Bears found some offense. At 5:30 of the third period, Sullivan's lay up gave Pleasant Valley its' first lead of the game at 22-21. After trading baskets, Kiki Russell's two free throws three minutes later put the Bears up a 26-25. With eight minutes to go, the Bears led by one, and the feeling was that their comeback might discourage the Mountaineers.In the fourth, PV freshman, Masani Francis scored on a running bank shot to knot the game at 33 with 6:05 remaining. With 4:58 to go, Renee Milos sank one of two free throws to tie the game again at 34, but after Stroudsburg's Tatiana Williams coverted two free throws, the backbreaker for the Bears happened when Tamia Hines drilled a three-pointer to open the Mountaineer lead to 39-34 with under a minute left.After the loss, Guaransky put her team's season into a positive perspective."Although I'm upset for our seniors, Shante Benjamine and Shayna Keefer, this was a great experience of learning for our young players. I told them I loved them and how proud I was of their efforts."Russell led the Bears with 11 points while Hines paced Stroudsburg, scoring a game high 13 points on the night.STROUDSBURGHines 4-2-4-13, Williams 3-3-10-9, McClaren 2-2-3-6, Wooten 0-0-0-0, Phillips 0-0-0-0, Wright 0-0-0-0, Johnson 3-0-0-6, Byra 1-3-4-5, Powlette 1-0-0-2, Browning 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 14-10-20-41.PLEASANT VALLEYSullivan 3-0-2-8, Miller 0-0-0-0, Francis 2-0-0-4, Benjamine 2-0-0-4, Russell 4-3-4-11, Borden 1-0-0-2, Milos 2-1-2-5, Fields 0-0-0-0, Salmon 0-0-0-0. Fields 1-1-2-3. TOTALS: 15-5-10-37.Stroudsburg 10 8 10 13 - 41Pleasant Val. 6 8 15 8 - 37Three - pointers: S - Hines 3. PVL - Sullivan - 2.