Is it a moot point for any team in the Schuylkill Girls Basketball League Division 3 to cede to preseason favorite Mahanoy Area?

Was the same question facing Marian Tuesday evening against Lourdes, a team that handled the Fillies over a month ago in Coal Township, 58-37?The answers to both questions: No!As Marian showed, it isn't going away without making a statement, as the Fillies dumped the Red Raiders to the tune of 28-19, avenging an early-season loss.Paul Brutto's squad now looks more assured that it will make a run before the division is settled."Huge," said Brutto about the win as he smiled following a crossover victory against their Division 2 opponents."It gets us back in the division race, for now anyway, with Mahanoy. District-wise Lourdes is a decent team and hopefully it will give us a (points) bump. And hopefully Moravian (Academy, the District 11 early leader) will get a few losses to help us too."It wasn't Rembrandt to be sure. Even Brutto bluntly thought it was like two pit bulls clawing."It was an ugly game; never a bad win, never a good loss… we'll take it."Where it all began and ended was the defensive pressure the Fillies had to force on one of the league's top players - Carmella Bickel. The senior had a feast in the first matchup with 26 points.Last night she was starved, nary a point.And last night it was Brenna Karnish who got the call and responded emphatically."We asked Brenna to deny her the ball," said Brutto. "We wanted to limit her touches and she did a pretty good job of that."Karnish kept stalking the high-scorer and allowed her all of four shots from the floor. The exceptional Lourdes player managed just a pair of foul shots, both misses."The first game (Bickel) did what she wanted to do and they just blew us out," said Brutto.Another turning point was when Brutto inserted 6-foot Emma McClafferty, a raw sophomore who got some seasoning in the win."We had to get bigger and Emma did a pretty nice job, especially in the second half."McClafferty ended with seven rebounds, but late in the second period she came up with a huge blocked shot, picked off the ball and fed to a streaking Emily Shaud, who converted the layup with seconds to go before the half. That gave the Fillies momentum and a 14-12 lead.Even though the Raiders tied the score at 16-16 at the 2:44 mark of the third quarter, Karnish drained a triple, and Gianna Agosti duplicated her teammates triple.Selina Albert swished home a trey of her own, but that would be the last point of the evening for Lourdes as Marian slammed the door and didn't allow a single fourth-quarter point.The offense, meanwhile, was getting a distribution of points from Shaud, Karnish and Agosti. Shaud led with eight, including a pair of triples. Karnish sank seven and Agosti had five.BY THE NUMBERS ... Marian was 12-of-36 from the field, and Lourdes was 10-of-31. Marian also out-rebounded its opponent 29-20.ODDITY ... There were only four foul shots in the contest; all were taken by Lourdes.JV SWEEP ... Marian smothered Lourdes in the opener, 32-15. McClafferty tallied 13 and Isabella Schwabe added 10 points in the victory.LOURDESL. Bickel 3-0-0-6, Albert 2-0-0-6, Milewski 2-0-2-4, Komara 1-0-0-3, C. Bickel 0-0-2-0, Czeponis 0-0-0-0. Totals: 8-0-4-19.MARIANShaud 3-0-0-8, Karnish 3-0-0-7, Agosti 2-0-0-5, McClafferty 2-0-0-4, Alansky 1-0-0-2, Raabe 1-0-0-2, Erbe 0-0-0-0, Correale 0-0-0-0. Totals: 12-0-0-28.Lourdes 7 3 7 0 - 19Marian 7 7 8 6 - 28Three-pointers: Lourdes - Albert 2, Komora 1; Marian - Shaud 2, Karnish 1, Agosti 1.