POTTSVILLE - Youth and inexperience can often times be a recipe for failure, especially in the postseason.

However, don't tell that to Minersville.With four sophomores and one freshman in the starting lineup, and no juniors or seniors even on the roster, the Battlin' Miners have been cooking up plenty of success recently with a few key ingredients.Last night at Martz Hall, Minersville combined a heavy dose of Abby Schoffstall from the point with a handful of Emily Mealey in the paint and sprinkled in a barrage of Maura Bentz off the bench to serve Marian a 55-37 setback in the quarterfinal round of the District 11 Class AA Tournament.The Battlin' Miners (23-2) have now won four straight meetings against the Fillies, including last year's Schuylkill League championship game.The win advances third-seeded Minersville into next week's District semifinal against seventh-seeded Palisades (a 55-48 upset winner over second-seeded Notre Dame of Green Pond), while Marian sees its injury-plagued season come to a close with a 17-8 record."They have two great players in Schoffstall and Mealey, and in my opinion, Schoffstall is the best player in the Schuylkill League," said Marian head coach Paul Brutto. "Add to that the fact that their role players do a great job on almost every occasion, and they're just a real tough team to deal with, yet alone beat."After shooting just 1-for-21 from the field in last week's Schuylkill League championship game against North Schuylkill, Schoffstall once again came out cold, as the sophomore point guard (averaging 18.4 ppg) was held to just two points in the first half.However, Bentz and Mealey stepped up in her absence, combining to score 20 of Minersville's 29 first half points. With the Battlin' Miners trailing 6-3 early in the game, Minersville went on a 6-0 run and took back the lead with the first of three first-half treys by sophomore guard Maura Bentz. Marian would never see another lead the rest of the night, as the defending District 11 Class AA championship took a 29-20 lead into halftime."We knew Marian was going to try to take away either Abby or Emily, but we just didn't know which one," said Minersville head coach Jared Homa. "When teams concentrate on stopping one girl, other girls need to be ready to step in and fill the void. I think Maura Bentz did a great job of that tonight, both offensively and defensively. She came off the bench and hit some big shots."With the Minersville lead swelling to 15 points early in the third quarter, Marian senior Abbey Whildin tried to take matters into her own hands. Whildin, a member of the 1,000-point club, scored eight straight points in under a minute, including back-to-back three-pointers, to cut the deficit to 37-30. Unfortunately for Marian, a Schoffstall three-point play brought the lead back to double-digits and the Fillies would get no closer, as they shot just 2-for-9 from the field over the final 12 minutes of the contest."I'm extremely proud of Abbey," added Brutto. "I know she's disappointed with this loss, but she's going to eventually look back and see all the great things she's accomplished over her high school career."Tonight, she played her heart out, as did all of the girls, and did everything possible to try to get us a victory."Whildin ended her Marian career with a game-high 18 points and eight rebounds.For Minersville, Bentz scored 14 points, while Mealey added 13 points and eight boards.Marian shot 15-for-38 from the field, while Minersville converted 17 of its 47 attempts.The Battlin' Miners outrebounds the Filles 37-34, but Marian eventually succumbed to turnovers (16) and poor free throw shooting (4-for-16)."The kids on this team deserve a ton of credit, especially for fighting through a lot of adversity this season," concluded Brutto. "I told them that they didn't win a medal or a banner like some of their predecessors, but I'm as proud of their persistence and tenacity as I am of any team I've coached."MARIANWhildin 7-2-8-18, Whitecavage 2-0-2-4, Correale 0-0-0-0, Shaud 0-0-0-0, Agosti 1-0-0-2, Capparell 1-0-2-2, Karnish 3-2-2-9, Stoyer 1-0-2-2. TOTALS: 15-4-16-37.MINERSVILLENawrocki 2-0-0-6, Kriston 2-0-0-4, Polinsky 0-0-0-0, Schoffstall 2-4-5-8, Bentz 4-3-4-14, Ebert 0-0-0-0, Mealey 3-7-9-13, Kroznuskie 1-1-2-3, Wigoda 3-1-2-7. TOTALS: 17-16-22-55.Marian 9 11 12 5 - 37Minersville 11 18 13 13 - 55Three-Pointers: Marian - Whildin 2, Karnish 1; Minersville - Bentz 3, Nawrocki 2.