Playing zone against Lehighton’s shooters is often a recipe for disaster.

Then again, when the Indians’ offense is firing on all cylinders, any defense thrown at them is probably ineffective.

Pleasant Valley tried multiple ways to slow down the Tribe Monday during the team’s non-league contest, but no matter what the Bears used, Lehighton always had an answer.

Trevor Miller’s club shot 60 percent in the opening half to build a sizable lead, and eventually pulled away for an 81-62 victory.

“Everything that I’ve seen from them, they’ve played that 3-2 zone, and we felt like we could take advantage of the corners of that zone, and that’s pretty much what we did,” said Miller, Lehighton’s head coach. “We were able to put Cole Dietz (six three-pointers) in one corner and Talin Fairchild (four treys) in the other.

“I think when we started to make some shots, they had to kind of switch what they normally do. But we were also able to run our man sets pretty well. One of the nice things is when you try to take one thing away, with the team that we have, we have other options. And that’s kind of what you saw tonight.”

The two teams came out firing, and Pleasant Valley actually jumped to an early 12-6 lead thanks to three bombs from Jacob Loch. But with the advantage still at six in the Bears’ favor (19-13), the visitors closed the quarter on a 15-2 run — which included threes from Dietz, Fairchild and John Light — to go ahead 28-21 after a wild eight minutes.

“We played well offensively there,” said PV mentor Bob Hahn. “We were living and dying by the three and we were hitting, and then we went cold. We kept thinking the threes were the option and we weren’t working the ball inside, which has been our bread and butter this year.

“We started to settle. So as good as it was for us in the first quarter, I think it ended up hurting us because we were relying on it more than trying to work the ball in and get our inside-out game for the shot.”

The lead grew for the Indians in the second frame, using a 16-3 spurt to gain a 20-point margin. Dietz and Fairchild knocked down shots from distance, followed by a pair of driving shots and two free throws from Joe Roth.

“We kind of just had to ride that (first-quarter) wave (by PV) out a little bit,” said Miller. “And I felt like we did that. I think the key was we were able to score while they were scoring ... We made some adjustments to our zone, and when we did that, contesting some of their shooters, that kind of changed the momentum of the game.

“We like to get out in transition, which you saw a little bit more in the first half, and when we got out in transition, Brayden Johnson did a great job of finding our shooters, and they knocked them down. There’s not much else to say other than we’ve got a bunch of shooters in this locker room. And that’s good for us.”

The Bears went to a man defense in the second half, which helped them cut into the deficit. While Lehighton struggled a bit against the switch, Hahn’s club used a couple baskets — one a three — by JJ Moore to trim the score to 47-38.

But Lehighton righted the ship, getting to open spots and knocking down shots in the form of another impressive run — this one 14-3 — to put the game out of reach.

Dietz and Fairchild were again the sparks, with each hitting a pair of treys to make it 61-41 late in the third.

“We felt like we wanted to put pressure on them so they couldn’t get into their offense,” said Hahn. “They are very efficient in their offense, and they have very good shooters when they run their offense ... They did a good job of hitting the open man and beating the pressure and finding the shooters.

“Then playing from behind, we had to try some things that were a little out of our element to take the risk and try and come back, and it just didn’t work out.”

LEADING SCORERS ... Dietz finished with a game-high 26 points for the winners, while Roth ended with 19 and Fairchild tallied 16. Light also chipped in with 10. Zach Prator collected a team-high 24 points for the Bears, however half of those came in the final quarter. Loch made five threes and finished with 15.

SPEAKING OF THREES ... The two clubs combined for 27 three-pointers, 14 by PV and 13 by the Indians. Lehighton was 13-of-29 from distance while the Bears were 14-of-33.

JV GAME .. Pleasant Valley won the opener 53-42 behind 19 points from William Bruer and 17 from Marcelus Solt. The Tribe were led by Collen Richardson and Tommy Blair, who both scored 12.

LEHIGHTON

White 0-0-0-0, Solt 2-2-2-7, Light 4-1-2-10, Meek 0-0-0-0, Fairchild 5-2-2-16, Johnson 1-0-0-3, Roth 7-5-7-19, Dietz 10-0-0-26, Richardson 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 29-10-13-81.

PLEASANT VALLEY

Haines 1-2-2-4, Loch 5-0-0-15, Roselli 0-0-0-0, Kauffman 1-0-0-3, Solt 1-0-0-3, Moore 3-0-0-7, Sacci 2-0-0-6, Green 0-0-0-0, Breuer 0-0-0-0, Prator 10-0-0-24. TOTALS: 23-2-2-62.

Lehighton 28 19 17 17 - 81

Pleasant Vy. 21 10 13 18 - 62

Three-pointers: Lehighton - Dietz 6, Fairchild 4, Solt 1, Light 1, Johnson 1; Pleasant Valley - Loch 5, Prator 4, Sacci 2, Kauffman 1, Solt 1, Moore 1.

Records: Lehighton (8-1); Pleasant Valley (2-6).