Marian's Addy Fritz pulls up in the lane for a jumper during Friday's PIAA Class AA girls' first-round contest against MaST Charter II at Bensalem High School (Photo by James Gelatko).

By Bill O’Gurek Sr.

BENSALEM — It’s opponent’s sub-par talents notwithstanding, the Marian Fillies set out Friday night in its PIAA Class AA girls’ basketball state tournament opener to set the tone for what coach Damian Fritz hopes will be a solid run for the gold.

And after a well-balanced scoring assault of the MaST Community Charter School II Voyagers at Bensalem High School, the Fillies appear to have accomplished that task, rolling to a convincing 76-11 victory to advance to the Sweet 16.

The Fillies (22-4) will meet District 2 runner-up Elk Lake on Tuesday at a site to be determined. Elk Lake advanced with a 42-35 win over District 4 champion Muncy.

For the Hometown diocesans, the round of 32 appeared to be a cakewalk, as they led from start to finish even though the Voyagers held on for a few minutes, staying within six points at 11-5 through the first 3.5 minutes of the game.

“We really settled in offensively, executed well,” Fritz said. “Offensively, we’ve had a couple of good practices leading up to tonight and the girls shot the ball really well.”

The offensive explosion saw four of the five Fillies starters reach double digits, not the least of which was Addy Fritz, known as “Juice,” the coach’s daughter. She poured in 21 points in a limited role as her dad emptied the bench as early as the first period.

“When everybody does their job, good things happen,” Coach Fritz said. “We get the ball in the paint and it opens up the wing. We took advantage of that and Addy was the beneficiary. She shot extremely well.”

Teammates Olivia Serfass, Deanna Pugh and Addy Marek followed with 14, 12 and 12, respectively, to balance the Fillies’ attack.

Marian led 21-7 after the first eight minutes before going on a 36-0 spurt that blew up the scoreboard to 57-7. Meanwhile, the Voyagers struggled to put points on the board, going without a point for a period of 11:28, including a scoreless second quarter. MaST turned over the ball 15 times before intermission.

For all intents and purposes, the game was all over at that point.

Facing reality afterwards, losing coach Taylor Dillon noted, “Our division’s skill level is a lot lower (than Marian’s). They (the Fillies) are skilled and it was hard for us to compete. They shot the lights out. That’s a well-disciplined team with very committed girls. You can tell they are well-coached; that’s the big difference.

“It’s hard to compare apples to oranges.”

Damian Fritz was pleased with his team’s shooting touch after rough games with Shenandoah Valley and Williams Valley in the District 11 playoffs.

“I’m really happy the way we shot the ball,” Coach Fritz said.” We needed a game like this. The touch was there.”

The win, he said, “was good for our program; good for all of our girls.”

He elaborated: “When you work hard, games like this are opportunities. We talk about the opportunity to play in an environment and atmosphere that the state playoffs present, and it’s good for everybody. From the top down, we played with a lot of confidence. From 1 to 10 (on the roster), it was good to see.”

Game Summary

PIAA Girls’ Basketball

Class AA First Round

At Bensalem HS

MARIAN (76) — O. Serfass 6-1-1-14, Fritz 9-0-0-21, Pugh 6-0-0-12, Hasara 0-0-0-0, Marek 4-2-2-12, Thomas 1-0-0-2, Carone 2-0-0-5, Hannis-Miskar 2-0-0-4, Gelatko 1-0-0-2, S. Serfass 2-0-4-4. Totals 33-3-5-76.

MAST CHARTER II (11) — Kaba 1-0-0-2, Rios 2-0-0-4, Birkholz 1-0-0-3, Bolds 0-2-2-2, Hansford 0 0-0 0, M. Verdanidze 0 0-0 0, Ramirez 0 0-0 0, E. Foster 0 0-0 0, A. Foster 0 0-0 0, L. Verdandze 0 0-0 0, Canole 0-0-0-0. Totals 4-2-2-11.

Mar (22-4)              21 … 27 … 28 … 8 — 76

MaST (11-4)          7 … 0 … 2 … 2 — 11

3-point FGs: Fritz 3, Marek 2, Carone, O. Serfass, Birkholz.