FOXBURG — It wasn't just another win.

It was a win, period.

After dropping 62 straight games, the A-C Valley girls basketball team topped Elderton 47-29 on Jan. 18.

It was the program's first win since the Falcons beat North Clarion in the final game of the 2004-05 season.

"To see the looks on the girls' faces when the clock hit zero and they realized that they had won, it was tremendous," said first-year A-C Valley coach Lane Larimore.

A week later, the Falcons defeated Rocky Grove 49-34 and will carry a 2-18 record into tonight's game at Venango Catholic.

There are many more steps for the program to take, but getting a win was the first.

Markeea Hart knows that as well as anybody. A freshman on the 2004-05 squad that finished 8-14, she and her teammates then endured two straight winless seasons.

"I didn't lose hope that we would win a game again. You always have hope," said the senior center said. "But I did lose focus. That's the difference with this year's team. We're more focused and we want it more."

It was an early-season meeting against Rocky Grove that gave the Falcons much-needed confidence, even though A-C Valley lost the game.

The Orioles prevailed 58-54 in overtime on Dec. 10. It was the closest the Falcons had come to winning a game in three seasons.

"I had a feeling that we would get a win, somewhere and somehow," Larimore said. "But I'll admit, by mid-season I got caught up in the losing. I thought, 'Man, when are we going to get it?'"

The Falcons began the season with 15 consecutive losses before the Elderton game.

But the Falcons showed how far they had come in the rematch with Rocky Grove last Friday.

The team's defensive scheme was the key to the victory.

"In the first meeting, Rocky Grove's point guard, Jess Reeher, scored 27 points against us," Larimore said. "The second time we played them, we played a 1-3 zone, leaving one of our girls to play man against Reeher.

Kaylin Strauser and Shannon Blauser shouldered the responsibility of guarding Reeher, who scored only four points in the game — all on free throws.

"You could just see the frustration on (Reeher's) face by the end of the game," said Larimore.

On the offensive end, sophomore point guard Erika Rothen tallied 20 points in the win over Rocky Grove, the most points in a game by a Falcons player in three seasons.

The Falcons scored only 16.6 points per game last season, but have more than doubled that output this year at 35.1.

But the biggest positive is that most of the players making an impact this year will be back next season. Hart is the only scorer in the Falcons' top eight who will graduate in June.

The team's leading scorer, shooting guard Erin Larimore (6.2 ppg), is a sophomore.

Rothen is putting up 6.1 points-per game.

Junior forward Maryellen Busch is garnering 5.7 points and 8.7 rebounds every contest.

Busch has recorded 18 rebounds in a game twice this season, including a contest against Redbank Valley when she added 14 points.

"I kind of wish the season was just starting," said Rothen. "We're playing with a lot more confidence right now."