POTTSVILLE - Experience matters.

North Schuylkill, which came into its Schuylkill League girls basketball championship match-up against Marian, winning two of the last three titles, used its experience and championship pedigree to collect its third title in four years in an instant classic at Martz Hall on Friday night.

The Fillies gave the Spartans everything they could handle, forcing the game to overtime, but costly turnovers down the stretch helped North Schuylkill escape the “Mecca” with a 56-52 victory.

“Run as One” has been the mission statement for this year’s Marian squad, and that’s exactly what it was able to do numerous times throughout the game.

The Fillies’ first big run came in the second quarter trailing 28-18 with 4:04 remaining.

Marian got hot from the field, going on a ferocious 12-0 run behind big triples from Ashley Pleban and Kerrigan Digris - who each hit a pair of three-pointers in the half. After the surge, the Fillies held a 30-28 lead at the intermission despite committing 12 first-half turnovers.

“It took us a little time to settle in, which was to be expected in this environment, and we also just needed to be a little more patient and take better care of the ball,” said Marian head coach Damian Fritz. “Once we were able to do that, we were able to get some good looks, and knock down some shots.

“We have a good basketball team and the girls showed that tonight with the offensive runs that they put together in critical moments against a really good opponent.”

North Schuylkill started the third with a 4-0 spurt to take a one-point lead, but again the Fillies put together a string of buckets and a 10-0 run to hold their biggest lead of the game - 40-33 - midway through the third frame. Six points from Fatikha Tikhtova helped spur the run.

Marian (22-2) finished the quarter strong with a triple from Carly Minchhoff at the buzzer to make it a five-point advantage (45-40) heading into the fourth.

“You have to give credit to them for fighting back after we had that 10-point lead in the second quarter,” said North Schuylkill head coach Rich Wetzel. “But we gave up too many open jump shots, and too many open three-pointers, and that got them back in it.

“You can’t give a good shooting team like that those type of open looks.”

North Schuylkill and Marian continued to battle back-and-forth throughout the fourth quarter, with eight turnovers in the frame by the Fillies helping the Spartans stay close.

With Marian leading 51-50 late, it committed its most costly miscue. After a missed North Schuylkill jumper and a Fillies defensive rebound, Marian’s outlet pass was intercepted around the half court line. The steal resulted in two made free throws from veteran Spartans guard Kamryn Mengel to give North Schuylkill a 52-51 lead with 39.7 seconds remaining.

Still, with all the turnovers at inopportune times down the stretch, Marian was inbounding the ball under its basket with 5.1 seconds left to try and take the lead. After a missed lay-up that rimmed out, Fillies guard Frankie Martinelli grabbed the rebound and was fouled on the put back try. After missing her first foul shot, she made the second to send the game into overtime.

“This was one of those games where the atmosphere was amazing the whole game,” said Mengel. “There is nothing like that or better than that. I just think throughout the game we did a good job of anticipating and creating turnovers.

“Once we got to overtime, we just needed to do whatever we needed to do to win the game. We wanted this bad after losing the championship last year.”

North Schuylkill (22-2) was able to do just that in the overtime period as they held the Fillies scoreless. After getting out to a 54-52 lead, a deuce from Savannah Gawrylik would give the Spartans the cushion they needed to close out the win.

“This was a great environment here tonight, and our girls fought and played so hard,” said Fritz. “We just had too many turnovers and some late turnovers that really hurt us.

“But we’re going to take away the positives from this game, and we’re going to continue to work hard and get better, and prepare for the district playoffs.”

LEADING SCORERS … Minchhoff led Marian with 15 points. Digris and Tikhtova added 10 apiece for the Fillies. For the Spartans, Mengel and Maddy Wetzel each tallied 17.

TITLE TOWN … It was the Spartans’ third Schuylkill League title in four seasons and 17th overall. North Schuylkill heads into the District 11 Class 4A playoffs as the No. 2 seed. Marian has locked up the No. 1 seed in the 2A playoffs.

TOO MANY TURNOVERS … Marian’s 26 turnovers in the game, including eight in the fourth quarter, proved costly on the night.

MARIAN

Pleban 2-0-0-6, Digris 4-0-0-10, Martinelli 2-1-2-5, Minchhoff 6-2-4-15, F. Tikhtova 5-0-1-10, Fritz 3-0-0-6, Thomas 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 22-3-7-52.

NORTH SCHUYLKILL

Burke 1-1-2-4, Gawrylik 3-2-2-8, Mengel 5-7-8-17, Wetzel 6-3-5-17, Hall 2-1-2-6, Koutch 1-0-0-3. TOTALS: 18-14-19-55.

Marian 13 17 15 7 0 - 52

North Schuylkill 16 12 12 12 4 - 56

Three-pointers: Marian - Pleban 2, Digris 2, Minchhoff 1; North Schuylkill - Wetzel 2, Burke 1, Hall 1, Koutch 1.