Pandemonium in Hometown.

Marian and Mahanoy Area can produce that type of excitement when they meet in sports.

The Golden Bears — a 20-point loser to the Colts in their first meeting earlier this season — set a reverberating shock through the Schuylkill League by pulling off a 42-38 upset on Friday night.

The visitors stayed the course, never gave up on their game plan and finished off the improbable turnaround. By doing so, the Bears turned the Division 3 race from being in comfortable control of the Colts into a possible three-team battle to the finish.

Marian’s sensational scoring machine Tyler Fritz was “held” to 22 points by the Bears — and while that might not seem like an impressive defensive performance, it was nearly 10 points below his season average and it was good enough for the Bears.

“He is the best player in the league,” Mahanoy Area coach Ethan Eichhorst said about Fritz and the Bears game plan of doing everything they could to keep him from beating them.

“We just got back to playing Mahanoy Area basketball. Get a good shot, get back and play some defense. We kind of went back to that trying to work the clock.”

More like milk the clock and keep Marian from getting those cherished possessions. It’s a plan that worked throughout the contest and ended up holding the Colts to their lowest offensive output of the season — 12 points below their previous low mark.

Despite that, it was still anyone’s game coming down the stretch.

Tied at 36-36 with 1:29 remaining, Marian missed a foul shot, but ball hawked for a huge offensive rebound. After a missed Colt shot, Mahanoy got possession of the ball and Chase Mazalusky hit a layup to give the Bears a 38-36 lead. After Fritz hit one of two foul shots, the Bears came up pretty on the ensuing possession and it was Mazalusky scoring yet another basket for a 41-37 lead with 30 seconds to play.

“We had an awful lot of chances, but we made some bad mistakes when the game was on the line,” said Marian coach John Patton. “You have to fight through the adversity and we just didn’t do it.”

After Fritz made another foul shot with 24 seconds left, the Colts trailed 41-38. But Cole Streisel nailed the coffin shut with a pair of white-knuckler free throws with :09 to play.

Mahanoy Area had set the stage for the upset with a perfect game plan, using a deliberate motion offense to slow the pace of the game.

The Bears led 19-12 late in the second quarter before Fritz let loose with a halfcourt bomb that gave the Colts three points and a momentum boost heading into halftime.

Marian kept working and when it finally got the wheel rolling as it went up 31-29 after three quarters. The Colts nailed four triples during the third quarter and going 6-for-8 from the floor with Dante Agosti, Chris Ritsick and Fritz in the drivers’ seat.

The Bears weren’t ceding and tied the game 33-33 on a trey from Allen Feliciano and it became a see-saw battle right up until Mazalusky put Mahanoy Area in front for keeps on his breakaway in the final minute.

NUMBERS … Mahanoy Area was 14-for-32 from the field while the Colts were 11-for-35. The Bears outhustled their rivals for rebounds most the evening and ended with a 33-24 edge led by Shawn Miller’s 10 and Fritz had nine for the Colts.

THE RACE ... Marian falls to 7-2 in league play, while Mahanoy Area improves to 5-4. Nativity is now just a game back in the loss column at 5-3.

JV ... Marian claimed the opener 65-45 led by Chris Chambers, who scored 17.

MAHANOY AREA

Mazalusky 7-1-3-15, Marcellus 2-2-2-8, Ramos 2-2-3-7, Feliciano 1-0-0-3, Miller 1-3-4-5, Streisel 0-2-2-2, Silva 1-0-0-2. TOTALS: 14-10-14-42.

MARIAN

T. Fritz 5-7-14-22, Ritsick 3-0-0-8, L. Fritz 1-0-0-3, Agosti 1-0-0-3, Hnat 1-0-0-2, Cerullo 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 11-7-15-38.

Mahanoy Area 15 4 10 13 – 42

Marian 7 8 16 7 – 38

Three-pointers: Mahanoy Area - Ramos 1, Feliciano 1. Marian - T. Fritz 5, L. Fritz 1, Agosti 1.

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