Miners hand Fillies initial league loss

It’s tough to come into Marian’s house and dominate a basketball game against the perennial powerhouse Fillies.

But that’s exactly what Minersville did Friday.

The defending PIAA Class 2A state champion Miners rolled to a 49-33 victory in an important Schuylkill League battle .

Marian’s chances of victory kept wallowing away with each passing miss it had through a rugged first half of shooting.

“We didn’t shoot well – especially early when they were kind of giving us shots. We missed some layups and that put us in a hole,” said Marian coach Paul Brutto.

The Fillies (12-3, 7-1) definitely did struggle with their shooting, going a woeful 1-for-17 to start the game. Among the early misses were five layups.

“They kept penetrating and we were able to get lucky at times, and at times we did some nice things defensively,” said Minersville coach Jared Homa. “Our help defense was good enough to make them (miss) some of those easy shots.”

Minersville (14-1, 8-1) didn’t scorch the nets either but had a 7-2 lead after a quarter and then started to put some swagger in the offense to secure a 21-11 lead at the break.

“I thought our defense did a pretty good job,” said Brutto. “The score is a little deceiving, because they got a lot of foul shots down the stretch. (Overall) I thought our defense was pretty solid. We wanted to try and control their bigs.

“But No. 10 (Emily Graeff) hit some shots. She took some early shots and hit them to her credit and that hurt us.”

With Minersville leading 13-9, Graeff stepped up and drained a pair of triples to spring her team to a 10-point lead with 3:10 to play in the first half.

“I’m not upset with our defense or our offense. We had some early looks and just missed them, and that could happen to anybody,” said Brutto. They took away our big kids – Emma McClafferty and Isabelle Schwabe – and that hurt us.”

The Miners got big games from both Graeff , who finished with 15 points and Maggie Wigoda who knocked down 18.

“Emily had some openings and hit some big shots,” said Homa. “But give credit to Alex Kroznuskie, Emily Kriston and Maggie Wigoda. They found her with the hot hand, and that’s what you want your kids to do.”

The Miners built their lead to a commanding 32-13 lead midway through the third quarter. Graeff buried a pair of triples and Wigoda added two foul shots to spring their team to the biggest lead of the night.

“We couldn’t hit the shots from outside and a domino effect started to trickle in,” said Brutto who has to get his team ready to meet preseason divisional favorites Mahanoy Area Monday at home. “We have to put this behind us and get ready for Monday.”

CAN’T FIND THE OCEAN… The Fillies finished 12-for-40 from the floor. The Miners shot 14-for-44.

OTHER NUMBERS … Minersville out-rebounded Marian 38-32 with Wigoda’s 12 boards leading the way. McClafferty finished with 11 rebounds to lead Marian. Slick guard Emily Shaud poured 12 points to lead the Fillies.

MINERSIVLLE

Wigoda 4-10-15-18, Graeff 5-1-1-15, Kriston 2-5-6-9, Kroznuskie 2-0-0-5, Horan 1-0-0-2, Whalen 0-0-0-0, Hossler 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 14-16-22-49.

MARIAN

Shaud 4-4-4-12, McClafferty 4-0-1-8, Agosti 2-4-4-8, Erbe 1-0-0-3, Schwabe 1-0-0-2, Alansky 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 12-8-9-33.

Minersville 8 13 16 12 - 49

Marian 2 9 10 12 - 33

Three-pointers: Mi.- Graeff 4, Kroznuskie 1; Mar. - Erbe 1.