For the second consecutive season, the Marian girls’ basketball squad is headed to the PIAA 2A quarterfinals after a big 47-45 win over the Elk Lake Lady Warriors on Tuesday.

The Fillies will take on District 5 champion Berlin Brothersvalley at Gettysburg High School on Friday at 7 p.m.

“The philosophy of our program is to put the work in during the summer. It’s a sacrifice not only for the players, but also the parents. These girls give up vacations and time away from their friends to put the work in,” said Marian head coach Damian Fritz. “And putting that work in translates. Our goal is always to be playing good basketball at this point in the season, and I think right now we’re playing some of our best ball. We have also had really good leadership on this team since I’ve been the coach here. But again, at the end of the day, it’s all about the grind. Grinding to get better every day.”

There’s one thing that’s certain about the Fillies, and that is if they’re hitting their shots from beyond the arc, then they’re a very tough team to beat. On the season, Marian is averaging nearly seven three-pointers per game. The Fillies just hit 10 triples against Elk Lake, and in the first round of the PIAA 2A tournament, they cashed in from deep seven times.

Addy Fritz leads Marian with 66 three-pointers. Deanna Pugh had four three-pointers against the Lady Warriors, and now has 38. Freshman Addy Marek has tallied 32 triples and Olivia Serfass, who had three big hits from three against Elk Lake, has 19.

“Shooting is a mindset. Do we want to shoot that many threes every night? It’s not something that we always necessarily talk about. Ultimately, we want to play the inside-out game,” said Fritz. “But if the look is there, we’re sure not going to turn it down. At practice, we work a lot on skill development, which includes a lot of shooting. Shooting the ball well is a mindset. And we always tell our girls, if you have an open look, then you have the green light. They put the work in. So, they have to trust that the work is going to produce results when they shoot the ball. And I believe we’re shooting with confidence right now.”

Berlin Brothersvalley has put together an impressive season. The Mountaineers have won 23 straight games and are 25-2. They have also won three straight District 5 titles.

Berlin is anchored by superstar sophomore guard Coral Prosser. who currently has 11 Division 1 offers. Prosser had 34 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in the Mountaineers convincing 71-52 win over District 3 champ York Catholic.

The Fillies are coming off one of their best defensive quarters of the season, where they held Elk Lake to just four points in the fourth period.

“It all starts with their sophomore guard Prosser. She’s coming off back-to-back 30-point games in the state playoffs, and she’s as good as advertised. There aren’t many things that she doesn’t do well,” said Fritz. “What we have to do is make every shot for her difficult. We need to try and contest everything, and make her shoot over length. She has such a good pull up jump shot, so that’s what makes that difficult. And she sees the floor really well, and is great at finding her teammates whenever she is doubled.”

Prosser also has a strong supporting cast. Lexi Foor had a nice night for Berlin against York Catholic, scoring 12 points, which all came from beyond the three-point line. Elena Ritchey scored 12 points and pulled down eight rebounds for the Mountaineers in that game as well.

“They have a good supporting case around Prosser, and they play really well off her. They like to get out and run the floor. They’re going to spread you out and look to attack,” said Fritz. “On defense, they play very fundamentally sound man-to-man. They will run and jump you, and just try to make you uncomfortable.”

If the Fillies are able to pull off the win – and advance to the state semifinals – it will be the first time since the 2011-12 season that they were able to get to the state final four.

“The other night against Elk Lake, I felt like we put together eight really good minutes of basketball in that fourth. This season, we have yet to put together a full 32 minutes of that type of basketball,” said Fritz. “That’s what we’re going to try and do from here on out. We know we’re going up against a very good team, and a well-coached team. But we’re looking forward to the opportunity. We think we’re a pretty good team, too, and that we can compete.”