POTTSVILLE - Coming off a five-win season a year ago, some people might have doubted Marian’s chances of playing in the district championship game this season.

But the Fillies believed in themselves and their new head coach Damian Fritz.

Friday night at Martz Hall, they proved why no one should have doubted them.

In the latest version of Schuylkill County’s Holy Wars, the Fillies fended off rival Nativity, 44-20, to lay claim to the Holy Grail - the District 11 Class 1A championship.

Marian earned its 10th district title overall and its first gold medal since 2014 by bouncing the two-time defending champions from their throne. The win also gave the Fillies (20-5) the top seed out of District 11 heading into Wednesday’s first round of state playoffs, which will be held in Hometown.

“We’re a very tight-knit group,” said Fritz, who got a district championship for his birthday on Friday. “I knew all we had to do was keep playing our game and we did.”

Marian did suffer a rough stretch to start the game as it fell behind 11-7 after eight minutes. Despite the early deficit, one thing that was evident was the Fillies were never in panic mode.

“All we wanted to do was play our game,” said the Fillies’ Ashley Pleban. “Our shots weren’t falling early, but we knew it would happen… we knew that we were going to win.”

Teammate Frankie Martinelli agreed.

“Once we settled down, it was just a matter of our shots falling,” Martinelli said. “I don’t think there was a doubt in our mind that we were going to win.”

The Fillies started to take command near the close of the second period, reeling off an 8-0 run which started on a Carly Minchhoff bucket, Pleban then flung in a triple and Minchhoff added a trey of her own for a 15-13 lead that Marian never gave up.

“I kept telling the girls, ‘we’re fine, we’re fine,’ we’re going to start hitting those shots,” Fritz said about his team’s cold start from the floor.

The coach was on point.

When Pleban buried another triple and Sophia Lombardo zipped home a bucket right before the half came to a close Marian had a 20-17 lead.

Marian then took charge in the third quarter, propelled by a defense that forced the Golden Girls into mistakes, missed shots and crucial turnovers.

Nativity didn’t score a basket from the field in the entire second half.

“Our plan was to use our zone early because we were shorthanded. Then in the second half we would go man,” Fritz said.

The Fillies quickly stretched their lead to 28-18 thanks to Lombardo’s triple and five points from Martinelli. By quarter’s end, Marian was ahead, 34-19 and the rout was on.

“I knew with this team, how hard they worked on and off the floor, without having a summer program, they’d do very well,” Fritz said.

And his birthday gift?

“Ah, it’s pretty special,” he said.

DOUBLE DIGITS ... Martinelli had a huge game offensively for the Fillies with 18 points. Pleban ran the offense to perfection and added 10 points.

BREAKING IT DOWN … The Fillies took very few bad shots and made even fewer poor decisions. They had just six turnovers in the game.

SHORTHANDED ... Fritz’s statement about being shorthanded was referring to starting center Fatikha Tikhtova, who is ineligible to play postseason under the PIAA transfer rule.

STEADY AS SHE GOES … Not to be overlooked in the Fillies’ win was the standout play of Minchhoff, who scored eight points and led Marian with 11 rebounds.

NATIVITY

Abdo 1-0-0-3, Sinko 0-0-0-0, Quick 0-0-0-0, Kramer 2-4-6-8, Rugh 0-1-2-1, Bennett 0-1-2-1, Brennan 1-0-0-3, Zimerofsky 2-0-0-4, Pinkey 0-0-0-0, Koritka 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 6-6-10-20.

MARIAN

Minchhoff 3-0-2-8, Pleban 4-0-0-10, Martinelli 6-3-4-18, Lombardo 2-0-0-6, Pikitus 0-0-0-0, Corrado 1-0-0-2, Digris 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 16-3-4-44.

Nativity 11 6 2 1 - 20

Marian 7 13 14 10 - 44

Three-pointers: Nativity - Abdo 1, Brennan 1; Marian - Martinelli 3, Minchhoff 2, Pleban 2, Lombardo 2.