With no seniors on its roster, you would think Shenandoah Valley's season would be plagued by growing pains.

Instead, youth and inexperience has taken a back seat, as the Blue Devils are maturing way beyond their years.After starting the season at 1-7, Shenandoah has now posted victories in eight of its last nine games, including last night's 66-53 Schuylkill League Division 3 victory over Marian. The win officially clinched a District 11 playoff berth for the Blue Devils (9-8, 7-2)."We have a very young and inexperienced team, but the last couple of weeks, they've started clicking and coming together," stated Shenandoah Valley head coach Rob Miller. "They're buying into the system and it's showing - we're on a nice little run right now."Speaking of runs, a hot start by the Blue Devils buried Marian right from the start. Two three-pointers by Jermaine McNeil and a bucket by Joel Santana gave Shenandoah an 8-0 lead just three minutes in. The Colts, on the other hand, were stymied from the field, missing their first nine shot attempts. Five consecutive Marian field goals would eventually close the gap to 15-10, but Marian went on another dry spell, as the Colts came up empty on their next 10 attempts from the floor."We struggled early on and we couldn't convert shots. They built a big lead and we were able to cut a 16-point deficit to just six points in the third quarter, but we just couldn't get any closer," said Marian head coach John Patton. "We had our opportunities but we just couldn't capitalize. We missed Brandon Mohammed (who was out sick) tonight. We didn't do a very good job of rebounding or finishing at the rim, and that's what Brandon excels at."With a 33-23 halftime lead, Shenandoah Valley turned to sophomore point guard Joel Santana, who broke down the Marian defense all night long. After scoring 13 points in the first half, Santana scored the first seven points of the third quarter, en route to a game-high 29 points, which included shooting 12-of-14 from the free throw line. Santana also added seven assists to go along with five rebounds."Joel is one of the best point guards that I've ever coached," added Miller. "He's finally starting to realize that 16 points and nine assists is a better game than 25 and two. He's driving to the basket and kicking the ball out to his teammates, who are finishing the play. He shouldered a lot of the scoring load tonight, but I really think things are starting to come together on both sides of the ball for us.""You can tell Shenandoah has a high basketball IQ. They know where to go and they know where the open guy is going to be," noted Patton. "Santana's just a fantastic point guard because he not only scores points, but he also finds open teammates and puts them in a good position."Marian, who never saw a lead all night, must now win five of its last seven games (or four of its last five league games) to qualify for the postseason.Aside from Santana, Ian McColle paced Shenandoah with 15 points and 11 rebounds, while Ricardo Chagolla added 11 points of his own.For Marian (6-8, 3-5), Ethan Kuczynski netted a team-high 12 points and Aaron DeAngelo chipped in with 11.SHENANDOAH VALLEYSantana 8-12-14-29, McNeil 2-0-0-6, I. McCole 4-4-4-15, Alvarez 0-0-0-0, Creasy 0-0-0-0, Chagolla 5-0-0-11, T. McCole 0-0-0-0, Allegretta 0-0-0-0, Ryan 0-3-5-3, Cabrera 0-0-0-0, Michalik 0-0-0-0, White 1-0-1-2, Uholik 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 20-19-24-66.MARIANKarnish 2-1-2-5, Woitko 0-0-0-0, Vercusky 2-0-2-4, Puza 2-0-0-4, Paisley 3-0-0-7, Kuczynski 4-4-7-12, Cortese 0-0-0-0, DeAngelo 5-1-1-11, Wesner 4-2-2-10, Weber 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 22-8-14-53.Shenandoah Valley 17 16 17 16 - 66Marian 10 13 13 17 - 53Three-Pointers: Shenandoah Valley - I. McCole 3, McNeil 2, Santana 1, Chagolla 1; Marian - Paisley 1.