ORWIGSBURG — In a matchup that featured six ties and 11 lead changes, the Williams Valley Lady Vikings pulled out a thrilling 34-30 victory here Friday night over the Marian Fillies, depriving the Hometown diocesans the District 11 Class AA championship.

Coach Damian Fritz’s Fillies battled their Schuylkill League Division 2 rivals back and forth in a real nail-biter, but in the end fell short in the final 2:15 of play after clinging onto a one-point lead.

To be sure, the two teams, who shared wins against each other in league play and entered the contest with identical 21-3 records, gave their fans their money’s worth.

And while scoring surges by the two squads contributed to the see-saw scoreboard lights, it was perhaps a long-range three-pointer by Viking Ireland Kasper that thwarted a Fillie spree of nine straight points in the final four minutes of play.

Actually, an 11-point run by the Vikings, which included three treys and a foul toss by Kasper, put the Vikings in front 29-21 with 4:38 left to play.

Not to give up without a fight, Marian stormed back when Olivia Serfass hit a pair of field goals, Addy Fritz swished a triple and Deanne Pugh laid one off he glass off a feed by Addy Marek, and with 2:32 left, Marian went up 30-29.

Kasper’s bomb followed, as the junior forward tickled the twines to give the Vikings a 32-30 lead. Teammate Sage Smeltz scored at the 1:10 mark making it 34-30, and the Fillies went scoreless the rest of the way, finishing with the district silver medal.

“Defensively, it was the hardest we played all year,” said a disappointed Coach Fritz. “I was happy with the aggressive play we came out with, but offensively at times we couldn’t get the ball to drop.”

The Fillie mentor credited the Vikings with having a hand in his team’s inability to put up more points.

“Credit them; they did a good job,” he said of the Vikings. “Offensively, we did a good job, but it (lack of scoring opportunities) happens some nights. We didn’t shoot the ball well in the paint.”

As for the champion Vikings, coach Shane Zellers was somewhat at a loss for words, but he did note, “I’m filled with a lot of emotion. These last five years (he coached junior high at WV for a year before taking the head job four years ago) have been great. We showed up. I told our girls in a game like this you have to be tough and execute well.”

He too credited the Fillies defense, saying, “Give all the credit in the world to Marian. This is the third time we have played them this year and each one was a war. They knew what we were going to do, maybe more than we did.”

Kasper’s momentum-changing trey, Zellers said, “was huge,” adding, “She has good range and we were able to get her the ball.” Fritz agreed, saying, “There were two spots where we missed her, and she got behind us. Those type of plays are the ones you have to capitalize on to win, and they did.”

The back-and-forth contest saw the teams tied at seven after the first eight minutes, with the Fillies taking a 15-13 lead to the lockers after Olivia Thomas added a bucket and Fritz zipped two triples in the final 90 seconds before the break.

Marian had a 21-18 lead with 2:33 left in the third period but Kasper hit one of her four triples to tie the score and the Vikings added a bucket by Ella Kobularik and a free throw by Kasper to take a 24-21 lead through three frames.

“I told our girls we had to stay the course, play four quarters of basketball, because we knew that is a great team across the scorer’s table,” Zellers said.

And that the eventual winners did. Kasper hit another triple to start the fourth quarter and when Mallory Miller sank a pair of free throws, the score went to 29-21 with 4:38 on the board.

“We made a couple more shots and grabbed a couple more rebounds, and that was the difference, but let me tell you, we’re ecstatic (to be the district champions),” Zellers closed.

For the Fillies, they’ll advance to the PIAA tournament next Friday against MAST II Charter, the runner-up from District 12 (Philadelphia). Fritz said, “I’m proud of our girls’ efforts, and hopefully we can build on it. There are a lot of banners in our building noting accomplishments of teams that didn’t win their league or district (championships) but achieved great things, and while we’re disappointed, we’re also looking forward to more basketball that is left to play.”

Addy Fritz paced the Marian attack with 15 points (four triples) while Deanna Pugh added 10. Kasper copper scoring honors with 16 points, also nailing four threes.

MARIAN

Serfass 2-0-2-4, Fritz 5-0-0-14, Marek 0-0-0-0, Pugh 4-2-3-10, Thomas 1-0-2-2 Hasara 0-0-0-0, Carone 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 12-2-7-30.

WILLIAMS VALLEY

Kobularik 2-0-0-4, Kasper 5-2-4-16, Miller 1-3-4-6, S. Smeltz 4-0-0-8, Q. Smeltz 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 12-5-8-34.

Marian 7 8 6 9 - 30

W. Valley 7 6 11 10 - 34

Three pointers: Marian - Fritz 4; Williams Valley - Kasper 4, Miller 1.