The Marian girls basketball team can overwhelm an opponent.

The Fillies don’t play down to the competition. If you aren’t capable of playing at their level, the results will show it.

Normally, the meeting between Schuylkill County’s two Catholic high schools is a nailbiter.

This one was not.

The 2023-24 version of perennial power Pottsville Nativity is not at the level of its past teams - and it showed.

The Fillies accelerated out of the gates and never let the pedal up, rolling to a 76-10 win in the Schuylkill League opener for both teams on Friday night.

Marian coach Damian Fritz saw nothing but sunshine in his team’s performance. He quickly pointed to the way his team ran the floor, dished to the open player, and played stifling defense.

“Sometimes you can get a little over-confident and not play to your level, but tonight our girls played very well,” Fritz said.

There was hardly a flaw in Marian’s game.

To say the Fillies shot well is an understatement as they shot a sizzling 59.6% (31-for-52) from the field, while forcing Nativity into 33 turnovers.

Marian (3-1) also displayed its balance with for five starters hitting double digits. Frankie Martinelli led the way with 16 points, Carly Minchhoff had 13, Addy Fritz and Aliya Tikhtova netted 12 points apiece, and freshman Deanna Pugh added 11.

“That tells me a lot,” coach Fritz said. “It shows our versatility and it also shows how we have players who can score up and down our lineup. But even more than that, it shows me our maturity ... how we are starting to come around.

“When you do the little things those are the types of results you can produce. You know, we are very unselfish team and that’s what you get when you play the way we’re playing.”

Marian jumped out to a 20-6 first quarter advantage, led by Tikhtova and Fritz each with five points each.

A young Nativity (0-2) team could never get on track.

“Hey, Marian’s a dynamite team,” said Nativity coach Scott Forney. “You can see the type of talent they have. They’re very well-coached.

“As for us, we’re just trying to find ourselves. We have a lot of young kids, but we’ll hopefully learn from this game as well form our other games as the season goes on.”

Like a sleek clipper at sea, the Fillies smoothly upped the lead to 43-8 at the halfway point. Martinelli was at the wheel, pouring in 11 points in the second period with Tikhtova dropping in five.

“I thought we played extremely well,” said Fritz. “I thought we shot the ball extremely well and we did the things that we talk about in practice ... like making that extra pass.”

ON THE GLASS … Tikhtova led Marian in rebounding with eight. Minchhoff and Pugh grabbed six rebounds apiece.

PRESSING … Marian has a vaunted press. It finds ways to double the ball and then has a keen knack for picking off passes.

UP NEXT … Marian will have a hoops fest Monday as the boys and girls play a doubleheader against Wyoming Seminary.

NATIVITY

Zimerofsky 2-3-3-7, Bennett 1-0-0-2, Pinkey 0-1-2-1 Prentice 0-0-0-0, Daynorowicz 0-0-0-0. McNamarra 0-0-0-0. Palmeri 0-0-0-0, Walborn 0-0-0-0. Brennan 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 3-4-5-6.

MARIAN

Martinelli 7-0-0-16, Minchhoff 6-0-0-13, Fritz 4-3-4-12, Tikhtova 5-0-1-12, Pugh 4-2-2-11, O. Thomas 3-0-2-6, Hannis-Miskar 2-0-0-4, Carone 0-2-2-0, Serfass 0-0-0-0, Hasara 0-0-0-0, Kattner 0-0-0-0, Corrado 0-0-0-0, Osenbach 0-0-0-0, K. Thomas 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 31-7-11-76.

Nativity 6 2 0 2 – 10

Marian 20 23 26 7 – 76

Three-pointers: M- Martinelli 2, Tikhtova 2, Martinelli 1, Minchhoff 1, Fritz 1, Pugh 1.