SHAMOKIN Marian used a strong defensive effort to down Lourdes Regional, 37-33, in the championship game of the Lourdes Regional Tipoff Tournament Saturday.

The Fillies shut out Lourdes in the third quarter, 10-0, and survived a rally by Lourdes in the final quarter.Marian (2-0) didn't put the first game away until Kaysi McLaughlin broke free on an inbounds play and took a pass from Danielle Tristani for an easy basket with 23 seconds remaining, making it 36-33.Although McLaughlin missed an added foul shot, she did make an insurance free throw with nine seconds to go to seal the win.The two teams combined for 55 turnovers, but the biggest difference was that Marian forced most of Lourdes', coming up with 24 steals."They played great defense. They denied our first pass all game," said Lourdes coach Mike Klembara. "When you play a game like this, it shows you what your deficiencies are, and now we have to correct them. They forced us to play a half-court game, and that's not what we do well.""It was a very physical game," said Marian coach Paul Brutto. "I wouldn't have liked to lose a game like this. Both teams played very hard. The last two years we'd have probably found a way to lose a game like this."Indicative of how the game went, just one player from either team scored in double figures, and Marian's Tristani had just 10 points.Kaycee Gustie added nine points for the Fillies, who broke a 19-19 halftime tie with their third-quarter shutout.Sarah Getchey led Lourdes with seven points, and Nikki Komara, Ali Singh, Christina Perles and Shannon Kenney all scored six points.McLaughlin had seven steals, and Gabby Green and Tristani five each for Marian.Marian advanced to the championship game by beating Reading Central Catholic on Friday night.MARIANGreen 1-0-1-2, Faust 2-0-0-5, McLaughlin 3-1-7-7, Gutsie 3-2-2-9, Mankiewicz 0-1-4-1, Wilson 0-0-0-0, Shober 0-0-2-0, Ferko 1-1-2-3, Tristani 4-1-2-10. TOTALS: 14-6-20-37.LOURDESDyszel 0-2-2-2, Loftus 0-0-0-0, Komara 2-2-2-6, Getchey 3-0-0-7, Singh 2-0-0-6, O'Donnell 0-0-0-0, Raybuck 0-0-0-0, Perles 3-0-2-6, Kenney 3-0-2-6. TOTALS: 13-4-8-33.Marian 10 9 10 8 - 37Lourdes 11 8 0 14 - 33Three-pointers: Marian - Faust 1, Gutsie 1, Tristani 1; Lourdes - Singh 2, Getchey 1.