POTTSVILLE The best laid plans ...

Marian figured it had only one chance of pulling off an upset against Math, Civics & Sciences in the opening round of the PIAA Class A playoffs slow them down.Unfortunately for the Colts, the word slow doesn't seem to be in the MCS vocabulary.The Mighty Elephants, ranked No. 2 in the state in Class A, didn't take long to get their running game going. Whether it came off rebounds or after creating turnovers, the District 12 runner-ups got into transition faster than any team John Patton's club has seen this season.After three minutes of play, Marian faced a 5-3 deficit, but by the time the opening period ended an MCS blitz of fastbreak baskets along with some perimeter shooting from leading scorer Thomas Moore quickly turned the game into a rout.The Colts never rebounded from that 24-7 quarter and went on to drop a 71-45 decision to a team that hopes to still be playing in two weeks."We knew that if we came out and tried to run up and down the floor with them we were going to have a tough time," said Patton. "And early on that's what happened."They sent two, three guys to the glass and the other guys - they released them. We tried to keep two guys back. When you're trying to fight for every possession, and they're playing tough man defense, their guys just leaked out on them ... We had to try and slow down the game and we just couldn't do that."While Marian had trouble executing its strategy, the Philadelphia-based team succeeded with their plan.Using different defenders at different times, MCS (22-5) wanted to make life difficult for Colt point guard Chris Barletta."That was the key, we wanted to wear (Barletta) down," said winning mentor Dan Jackson. "We tried to keep a fresh defender on him so they could bother him up and down the floor."Our defense was very impressive today. We stayed at home and stayed with our principles. Barletta is a very good operator. He runs his team and gets everybody involved. We knew that if he got it going offensively early, we could be in for a long night."In the end, it was Barletta and his teammates that suffered a long evening.While keeping the Colts' top scorer without a point in the first half, MCS eventually pushed the advantage to 40-13. Marian used a 7-0 run, five of those points coming from JT Keer, to pull within 20 right before intermission but that would be the closest Patton's club would come the rest of the game."Now I know why they're the second-ranked team in the state," said Patton, whose team finished the year with a 20-6 record. "That team is going to win some more games."We told our guys to fight to the end and they did. They were able to keep Chris from getting to the basket with just one guy and maybe a little help. They're quick and they're long. They got a lot of stuff inside and they got a lot of stuff off the break which really hurt us."Keer, who scored 14 points in the Colts' last 10 games, finished with a team-high 15. Ryan Gimbi also reached double figures with 10 while Barletta had six to finish his career with 933.Jeremiah Worthem led all scorers with 20, most coming inside, while Moore ended with 18. The two combined for 17 points in the first quarter, when MCS took control."They move the ball real well and they move without the ball real well," said Patton. "And their big guys can shoot. The angles we didn't have, they had. And the shots we couldn't hit, they were able to get."We had eight seniors and they were a lot of fun to be around this year ... This team really came together. Keer had a great night tonight. We had different guys step up on different nights all throughout the year and that's what made us strong this season."MCS CHARTERRiddick 1-0-0-3, Hawkins 1-2-4-4, Davis 4-1-2-9, Williams 0-0-0-0, Stokes 1-0-0-3, Moore 7-1-2-18, Powell 3-0-1-6, Worthem 9-2-3-20, Wilcher 0-0-0-0, Dogan 1-2-2-4, Stevens 0-0-2-0, Amin 2-0-0-4, Welton 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 29-8-16-71.MARIANKeer 6-1-3-15, Stawick 1-0-0-3, Barletta 3-0-0-6, Karnish 1-0-0-3, Pilla 0-0-0-0, Ryba 0-0-0-0, Gimbi 4-2-3-10, Baker 0-0-0-0, Nesgoda 1-0-0-3, Da. Richards 0-0-0-0, Do. Richards 1-0-1-2, Agosti 1-0-0-2, Weber 0-0-0-0, Motil 0-1-2-1, Swankoski 0-0-0-0, Whah 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 18-4-9-45.MCS Charter 24 18 19 10 - 71Marian 7 13 18 7 - 45Three-pointers: MCS Charter - Moore 3, Riddick 1, Stokes 1; Marian - Keer 2, Stawick 1, Karnish 1, Nesgoda 1.