HS Girls’ Basketball: Marek’s block propels Marian past Williams Valley
Marian celebrates after defeating Williams Valley 28-23 in a Schuylkill League Division II girls' basketball showdown Tuesday night (Photo by James Gelatko).
TOWER CITY — In a game dominated by defense, it was only fitting that the play of the game came on the defensive end.
Marian’s Addy Marek blocked a potential go-ahead layup in the final minute to lift the Fillies to a 28-23 victory over Williams Valley in a Schuylkill League Division II girls’ basketball first-place showdown Tuesday night.
The win, Marian’s 10th straight, leaves the Fillies (12-1, 5-0 D-II) as the only unbeaten in Division II and hands the Vikings (11-1, 5-1) their first loss of the season.
“Every game, it just seems that one of our girls steps up and makes a play at the end of the game,” Marian coach Damian Fritz said. “That was a big block. She trusted her instinct, making her rotation, making her run and trusting her run.”
The game resembled more of a chess match than a basketball game as each team was patient offensively against the other team’s aggressive zone defense.
Possessions were long, with numerous passes on each one. There were no transition baskets by either team and each squad missed a lot of 3-point attempts.
The Fillies were 3-for-22 from beyond the arc, while the Vikings shot 2-for-13.
It was easily the lowest scoring output of the season for both teams.
“We knew what they liked to do, where they liked to get the ball,” Williams Valley coach Shane Zellers said. “We kind of took them off their spot and made them uncomfortable. I thought we did a great job defensively. It just wasn’t enough tonight.”
Marian led early, using a 7-0 spurt to close the first quarter. Deanna Pugh scored five of those points as the Fillies grabbed a 9-5 advantage after one frame.
Williams Valley answered with an 10-4 spurt in the second period that featured a rainbow 3-pointer by Ireland Kasper and five of Sage Smeltz’s game-high 15 points. The Vikings led 15-13 at intermission.
Smeltz was the only offensive weapon that clicked for the Vikings, as Williams Valley worked the ball to her inside for layups or hook shots. The senior scored all eight of the Vikes’ second-half points and added eight rebounds.
Smeltz was 6-for-10 from the field. The rest of the Vikings combined to shoot 2-for-17.
“I thought we did a very good job playing to the game plan,” Fritz said of his defensive effort. “We watched plenty of film on them. I thought we disrupted a lot of what they wanted to do. (Smeltz) underneath did get some easy looks. For a second straight game, I thought our defense stepped up and did the job for us.”
After a 3-pointer by Pugh, who had eight points, gave Marian a 20-19 lead after three quarters, Smeltz scored back-to-back buckets to put Williams Valley ahead 23-20 with 5:38 remaining.
The Vikings wouldn’t score again.
The Fillies missed their first nine shots of the fourth quarter before a steal by Pugh and an offensive rebound by Carly Hasara led to a layup by Olivia Serfass with two minutes remaining. Marian then took a 24-23 lead on a turn-around jumper in the lane by Addy Fritz with 56 seconds left.
Williams Valley called timeout with 46.6 seconds left and set up a well-designed inbounds play that had Quin Smeltz hit Jasmine Hechler in stride as she sliced to the basket. As Hechler went up for the layup, however, the 5-foot-11 Marek leaped through the lane and swatted it away, with Marian retrieving the loose ball in the corner.
“Deanna got beat, but I knew I was in the place I needed to be,” said Marek, who finished with six points and eight rebounds. “The rest of my team was all in help defense, so I credit them, too.
“We work on defense a lot in practice. When we work on defense, we’re always in help defense and we’re told to get to where we’re supposed to be. Me and my girls are really good at that.”
Marek said you could feel the momentum of the game change at that point.
“100 percent,” she said. “With all the fans and our bench … the rest of our team, there was just a switch in everybody at the end. We had a rough first three quarters, but we picked it up in the fourth. We knew we had to win this game. This was a business trip for us.”
Despite the block, Williams Valley still had chances. But the Vikings turned it over on their next two possessions without getting a shot off. A free throw by Serfass with 35 seconds left and three by Addy Fritz over the final 10.2 seconds set the final score.
Williams Valley had more turnovers (7) than shots (6) in the fourth quarter, finishing with 16 turnovers, 12 in the second half.
“We shot ourselves in the foot a couple of times on offense,” Zellers said. “They turned up the heat a little bit, added a little ball pressure and it got to us. Credit to them. They made some big plays down the stretch and had some big stops down the stretch.”
The Fillies and Vikings are clearly the top two teams in Division II and shouldn’t be tested until their rematch Jan. 30 in Hometown. They’re also the top two teams in the District 11 Class AA power ratings, so Tuesday’s clash could be the first of three or four meetings this season.
“Defensively, I’m pretty comfortable with what we did tonight,” Fritz said. “Offensively, we’re not playing good basketball. We’re not shooting the ball well.
“Our quote of the day was ‘Defense travels, toughness travels and together we travel.’ The defense showed up tonight and got it done tonight.”
