Efficient offense and solid defense played key roles in Pascack Valley’s 63-60 victory over Demarest at home on Thursday night to give the Indians their second consecutive win.

Both teams got off to a slow start offensively, but scoring picked up as the game progressed. Neither side was able to pull away as much of the contest consisted of the two teams trading buckets, ultimately leading to a 60-60 tie with under a minute to go.

Valley dribbled out much of the clock before sophomore Jake Wolf drove to the rim and missed a heavily-contested layup. However, senior Mike Garay rose up and grabbed the rebound to get the Indians the ball back with 12.7 seconds to go.

Following a timeout, Garay fired a bounce pass to cutting senior Max Yellin who was able to score a layup despite being fouled. He made the free throw to put the Indians up three points, which would be the difference after Demarest’s game-tying three-point attempt was blocked at the buzzer.

Sophomore Austin Koolery led the Indians with 27 points, 8 of which came at the free throw line. Yellin added 16 points of his own.

Demarest was led by sophomore Aidan O’Connor, who scored 25 points and shot the three with prowess all game.

One major key to the victory was the Indians’ near-flawless performance at the charity stripe. Valley converted 17 out of 21 free throws, which proved to be critical in the tight contest.

Ball security also played a significant factor in the win.

“When we value the basketball, we’re able to get the ball inside,” said PV coach Al Coleman said. The root of Valley’s success came in the paint, where Koolery was consistently able to score on the Demarest bigs or get to the line.

With the win, the Indians improve to 3-7 on the year. Their next game comes against Bergenfield, who they will host on Tuesday.