The mark of a young and inexperienced basketball team is how they respond when an early double-digit lead is knocked down to five points at the half.

Although it led from start to finish, Panther Valley needed a strong defensive second half to defeat Minersville 47-36 Tuesday night in Schuylkill League action.

The game began in favor of the Panthers. While the Battlin’ Miners were missing their first seven shots, PV bolted to leads of 7-0, 13-2, and 15-4.

Leading the offensive charge was junior Morgan Orsulak, who scored 11 of her 17 first-half points in the first quarter — mostly on paint-penetrating layups.

The leading scorer for the Miners in the first quarter was Jenna Cullen, who tallied six of her team’s points in the session.

Minersville’s shooting was well under 30%, but what kept it within 10 points was scoring off third and fourth chances by collecting offensive boards.

PV head coach Rob Kovac told his team before the game what to expect when their opponent missed shots.

“Minersville likes to shoot from the outside, and that usually means long rebounds will happen when they miss,” he said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t do a really good job getting most of those rebounds in the first half.”

Minersville battled back in the second period and cut the lead in half to five points. Cullen and Alayna Boom scored 22 of their team’s 23 first-half points with Boom throwing down 13 — many from long range in the second period.

With Panther Valley ahead 28-23 at the intermission, Kovac decided to change his defense to a 3-2 zone to start the third quarter to make it more difficult for the Miners to find open outside shots.

“It seemed to work,” he said, “especially against Cullen and Boom, who were getting too many open looks in the first half.”

The Miners did keep their deficit at just five points after the period ended with the Panthers up by a score of 39-33. Cullen led the visitors with five of her 14 total points in the frame. For PV, Orsulak tallied five of her game-high 28 points in the period, while Lucy Kocha, Caroline Breslin and Brenna McAndrew chipped in a basket apiece.

A dominating defensive fourth period by Panther Valley shut the door on any chance of a Minersville comeback.

While holding them to just three points in the final eight minutes, the Panthers iced the victory with three more buckets from Orsulak and two free throws from Ajete Gjoca.

Kovac summed up his team’s win with a few choice words.

“At times, we were good tonight and at other times we were, ‘Oh my goodness.’ I liked the way we moved the ball around as a key point in the game.

“We are young and mostly inexperienced, but Morgan had a monster night that made the difference.”

THE BEAST BENEATH THE BUCKET … Minersville had no answer for Orsulak, who worked her way along the baseline and under the basket to take passes from her teammates and score all her points on high percentage (68%) shots. The Panthers also received eight rebounds from Natalie Vermillion.

CHARITY ON THE CHEAP … Only nine points in the game were scored from the charity stripe, with five from Minersville and four by Panther Valley.

MINERSVILLE

Boom 6-0-0-15, Cullen 5-3-3-14, Castle 1-1-2-4, Troutman 1-0-0-2, Brennan 0-1-4-1, Horoschak 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 13-5-9-36.

PANTHER VALLEY

Orsulak 13-2-6-28, Vermillion 2-0-0-5, Gjoca 1-2-2-4, Kocha 2-0-0-4, McAndrew 2-0-0-4, Breslin 2-0-0-4. TOTALS: 21-4-8-47.

Minersville 7 16 10 3 - 36

Panther Valley 17 11 11 8 - 47

Three-pointers: Minersville - Boom 3, Cullen 1, Castle 1; Panther Valley - Vermillion 1.

Records: Minersville (0-3; 0-2); Panther Valley (2-2; 1-1).