To hear Shenandoah Valley’s boys basketball coach describe Tyler Fritz says it all.

Robbie Miller marveled at the 6-3 Marian senior guard after he tore into the Blue Devils’ defense for 39 points, shooting deftly, accurately and like a fine-tuned engine.

“He’s no longer that skinny, scrawny kid,” Miller said after Marian’s 72-49 win Friday night.

“The thing about Fritz is you can tell it came from hard work. I remember coaching against him in the district championship game and he was a scrawny little kid, as a freshman. He had the confidence then, he hit a big shot against us in that game … you can tell that he not only grew a little bit, but he put time in the weight room.”

The bottom line is Fritz is a game-changer.

His team wasn’t hitting the throttle early on and Shenandoah Valley (1-6; 0-2) was pulling its horses right alongside the Colts in a dead hit at the first quarter mark, 15-15.

“We knew it was going to be tough for us to get going,” said Marian mentor John Patton, whose team has a week layoff. “Our seniors stepped it up.”

“They’ve got great senior leadership,” Miller echoed.

Luke Matta and Nick Mikita, two Devil sophomores, were playing the way seasoned kids do — not backing down — and when their side took a 13-11 lead on Owen Kosar’s two foul conversions, Shenandoah looked like they would make a stab at an upset.

However, Fritz was weighing in the balance all along.

Every time the visitors thought they had a step, Fritz had two steps, and by quarter’s end he muscled and floated in 10 of his points.

In the second frame, Fritz connected on six field goals — two of them triples — lifting his team to a 26-17 lead quicker than Saint Nick was down and up the chimney on Christmas Eve.

By halftime, Fritz had 24 points and Marian (4-0; 2-0) never looked back.

Fritz was certainly the guy stroking it, but Patton made a few tweaks on the defensive side, including a check down on Matta, who was a threat on the blocks. In came John Malarkey and Julian Cerullo to contain Matta.

“We got some great play from Cerullo, Jaryn Eroh and Malarkey,” Patton said. “I told them (after the first quarter) we’ve got to shake it off. We’ve got some (great) senior leaders. Tyler kept on carrying us, and at halftime I told them we have to get him some help.

“Yeah, he can really shoot from out there no range (barring).”

As for the help, sharpshooting senior Chris Ritsick found his rhythm, too. He finished with 16 points — 11 of them coming in the second half.

The Blue Devils trailed 43-27 before flipping the coin on an 8-2 run, but that was the closest they would come to the Colts.

Ritsick launched a trey to close the third chapter before his teammates went on a 23-point scoring binge in the final period.

Fritz sank two fouls to open the final run, Mason Gibson nailed a bucket inside and Ritsick flung in another trey.

LET US COUNT THE WAYS … The Colts were lights out from the field, 28-of-54. SV was 18-of-40.

BIGGEST STAT … Marian pulled in 32 rebounds, 10 on the offensive end. The Devils had six offensive boards.

GET THE BROOM … Marian won the JV contest, 51-31, as Gibson scored 22 points. Mike Fellin added 10 and Chris Chambers had nine.

SHENANDOAH VALLEY

Kosar 5-2-2-15, Mikita 5-0-0-12, Matta 5-0-0-10, Karvois 1-1-2-3, Maksimik 1-0-0-3, Rivera 0-2-2-2, Vevasis 0-2-2-2, Lucas 1-0-0-2, Gilsant 0-0-0-0, Vozquez 0-0-0-0, Boris 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 18-7-10-49

MARIAN

T. Fritz 15-5-6-39, Ritsick 5-2-2-16, Agosti 3-0-0-6, Hnat 2-0-0-5, Gibson 2-0-0-4, L. Fritz 1-0-0-2, Goff 0-0-0-0, Cervasio 0-0-0-0, Nyer 0-0-0-0, Pan 0-0-0-0, Wargo 0-0-0-0, Chambers 0-0-0-0, Cerullo 0-0-0-0, Malarkey 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 28-7-10-72.

Shenandoah Valley 15 6 14 14 - 49

Marian 15 20 14 23 - 72

Three-pointers: Shenandoah - Kosar 3, Mikita 2, Maksimik 1; Marian - T. Fritz 4, Ritsick 4, Hnat 1.