MACUNGIE - Salem Christian head coach Rudy Lopez was quick to take the blame.

But truth be told, it was less about fault and more about Marian’s ability to succeed.

The Eagles opened up Tuesday’s District 11 Class 1A semifinal contest playing a zone defense. That move backfired, however, as the Fillies drained six three-pointers in the first quarter to build a sizable lead.

From there, Paul Brutto’s club was never really threatened and ended up posting a 40-27 victory to advance to Friday’s championship game.

“The zone was a bad decision,” said Lopez. “I watched some film of them against Nativity and ... I thought that would work. But it didn’t.

“We started out in a 2-3, but then we went to a 3-2 to try and guard the perimeter a little bit more, and that didn’t work either. I think we did two possessions of that, and then we went to man.”

Ashley Pleban hit the first triple for Marian (5-10)less than a minute into the contest before Mia Nemeth connected three times to open up a 12-4 advantage. Frankie Martinelli drained two more in the final two minutes of the opening period as the Fillies raced to an 18-6 lead.

“Mia shot well there,” said Fillies head coach Paul Brutto. “We got them out of the zone, which I don’t know if that was good or not. We’ve talked about Mia being our best shooter lately in practice, so it was nice to see her carry it over into a game. We also had a couple other players obviously hit some there, so it was a good start.

“They played some zone against Executive (Education Academy), but they played Nativity all man. I think they looked at our shooting the last few weeks and thought zone might be a good way to go. (I was) a little bit (surprised they stayed zone). But you know, you have to give it a chance. You can’t give up on it too quickly, but that was their decision.”

Jacalyn Possessky hit a couple of driving baskets in the second frame to help Marian slightly extend its lead to 14 points at halftime.

But Salem’s man defense kept the Eagles (13-10) within striking distance, and they made a bit of a run after the break.

The hosts used a 7-2 spurt at the start of the third quarter to get within 28-19. But while Marian wasn’t making any shots from the field (0-for-10 during the period), Brutto’s club did manage to get to the free-throw line. Four made foul shots in the latter stages of the period pushed the margin back to double digits.

The Fillies defense made sure that lead would hold up.

“I thought we needed to pressure them ... just to speed them up, because they really do a good job of being patient in their sets from what we saw on film,” said Brutto. “I think that bothered them a lot.

Marian forced five turnovers in Salem’s first six possessions of the final quarter, while Martinelli added a couple baskets to push the score to 37-21 with five minutes to play.

From there, Brutto’s club went to a triangle offense to take time off the clock and secure the win.

“My hats off to Marian; their girls just played really good team basketball,” said Lopez. “They ran a good delay to melt the clock, and we had a hard time trying to generate any steals out of it. I wish them the best against Nativity.”

LEADERS ... Martinelli finished with 10 points to lead the Fillies, while Nemeth’s three first-quarter treys gave her nine points. Carly Minchoff added eight, and Possessky finished with seven.

NO MORE THREES ... Marian shot 6-of-10 from three-point range in the opening period, and then went 0-of-4 the rest of the game. In fact, the Fillies’ first nine shots of the game all came behind the three-point line.

REMATCH ... Friday’s title game (5 p.m. at Martz Hall) will match Marian against top-seeded Nativity. “We felt good about our chances coming here, and now we get a rematch with Nativity,” said Brutto. “It won’t be easy. The first game we played them fairly tough. The second game they handed it to us. We’ll see what we can do. It’s nice to have the opportunity ... Hopefully we’ll get gold, but we’ll get a medal either way.”

MARIAN

Degaetano 0-0-0-0, Walsh 0-1-2-1, Nemeth 3-0-2-9, Pleban 2-0-3-5, Possessky 2-3-8-7, Martinelli 4-0-0-10, Klitsch 0-0-0-0, Digris 0-0-0-0, Minchoff 2-4-4-8. TOTALS: 13-8-19-40.

SALEM CHRISTIAN

Lewis 1-0-0-2, Weigner 0-0-0-0, Lopez 3-0-0-6, Jackson 2-1-2-5, Hiney 0-0-0-0, Hess 0-0-0-0, Van Norden 0-0-0-0, Krage 1-2-2-4, Ammon 1-4-6-6, Gehman 2-0-0-4. TOTALS: 10-7-10-27.

Marian 18 8 6 8 - 40

Salem Christian 6 6 9 6 - 27

Three-pointers: Marian - Nemeth 3, Martinelli 2, Pleban 1; Salem Christian - None.