The drought has finally ended for Weatherly.

The Wreckers’ boys basketball team pulled the plug on Marian’s dominance Tuesday evening with a 54-52 Schuylkill League victory.

Luke Medico’s “Mighty Mites” hustled their tails off time and again, and in the closing seconds bore through the Colts’ defense and hung on for the decision.

The win was the first for Weatherly against Marian since 2006, meaning 19 years of torture at the hands of the Colts had come to rest.

What was the key to victory? Perhaps it was the Wreckers approach of driving at the Marian defense. They didn’t back down, and played their guts out. While they were outmanned inside, they never let that bother them — even after watching their 10-point halftime lead evaporate.

Junior guard Ian McKeegan was nothing short of spectacular throughout the contest. The 5-7 McKeegan tallied a game-high 22 points, but most impressive was the way he kept going to the iron.

“We just needed to continue to attack their defense,” McKeegan said. “No backing down. We needed a win like this … we haven’t beaten them since something like 2006.”

McKeegan’s teammate Corbin Wagner felt the same way.

“I knew that if we kept going at them, getting them in foul trouble, we would get what we wanted,” Wagner said.

And that was a victory.

The win might have provided a bit of medicine for Weatherly head coach Medico, who wasn’t feeling up to par.

“I was in bed all day (Monday), and I wasn’t going to let the team down and not show up for this big game,” Medico said.

His team didn’t let him down, either.

Medico admitted the game plan was to challenge Marian’s quickness.

“Some people may have thought that wasn’t such a good idea — attacking their quickness, but I felt that was the only way to beat them,” Medico added.

Obviously, it proved to be a pretty good idea.

Most of the momentum throughout the game seemed to be on the Weatherly bench. That momentum may have staggered at times, but the Weatherlt players are resilient.

When McKeegan and Wagner weren’t producing, they had plenty of support from Niko Saldukas or Chance Staufffer. Dominick Kokinda and John Donish also contributed against the Marian attack.

After playing to an 11-11 first-quarter tie, Weatherly used a second-quarter flurry to grab a 27-17 halftime lead. The Colts actually went ahead with 3:47 left until intermission, thanks to the efforts of Justin and Jacob DeLa Cruz. But then McKeegan lit a Wrecker fuse with a three-pointer. He ended up scoring eight of his team’s next nine points as the visitors went to the locker rooms with a 10-point bulge.

“We had a bit of a good streak, then a bad one,” Medico said.

Marian came roaring back in the third quarter as Rocco Griguoli started to muscle his way inside, and freshman Greg Tirpak found some rhythm of his own. Justin DeLa Cruz also surfaced with seven points in a rally that propelled Marian to a 23-12 period that allowed it to take a 40-39 lead heading into the final eight minutes.

A calm Weatherly squad held its own, though, and matched the Colts basket for basket.

“Our main objective was to maintain our poise,” McKeegan said. “If we kept our (heads) in it, I felt that we would be just fine.”

The Colts suffered a big loss with 3:09 remaining and the score tied 47-47 when Griguoli — who was Marian’s leading scorer with 16 points — fouled out. McKeegan followed with five unanswered points to put Weatherly back on top 52-47 with 1:34 showing on the clock.

Tirpak pulled the Colts closer when he was fouled on a three-pointer and made all three shots to make it 52-50 with 41 seconds left. Donish hit one free throw for the Wreckers to make it a three-point game with 19 ticks remaining before Dominic Catrone scored inside off an inbounds play to cut the score to 53-52.

Then things got interesting.

Marian gained possession, but just missed on a foul line extended jumper. McKeegan added another free throw at the 9-second mark and the Wreckers held on, prompting a celebration that was nearly two decades in the making.

INSIDE TROUBLE ... Marian couldn’t convert inside, missing 33 layups during the contest.

MINI STREAK ... Weatherly has won three games in a row, the second time this season it has done that. Last season, the Wreckers only won two games.

WEATHERLY

McKeegan 7-5-7-22, Wagner 3-1-2-10, Saldukas 2-4-4-8, Stauffer 2-3-5-7, Donish 1-2-6-4, Kokinda 1-1-4-3. TOTALS: 16-16-28-54.

MARIAN

Griguoli 7-2-2-16, Ju. DeLa Cruz 3-2-2-9, Tirpak 2-3-3-8, Ja. DeLa Cruz 3-0-0-6, Ferreira 2-0-0-5, Catrone 2-0-0-4, Nunez 1-0-0-2, Rodino 0-2-4-2. TOTALS: 20-9-11-52.

Weatherly 11 16 12 15 - 54

Marian 11 6 23 12 - 52

Three-pointers: Weatherly - McKeegan 3, Wagner 3; Marian - Ju. DeLaCruz 1, Tirpak 1, Ferreira 1.

Records: Weatherly (7-5; 5-3); Marian (7-7; 4-5).