POTTSVILLE – Marian’s dream of its first Schuylkill League girls basketball championsip in over a decade fizzled under a furious fourth-quarter onslaught by Blue Mountain.

The Eagles reeled off 14 consecutive points to rally for a 45-38 semifinal round victory on Thursday night at Martz Hall.

The win propels Blue Mountain into Friday night’s championship game against North Schuylkill, who defeated Tamaqua in the opener of the twinbill.

The difference maker in last night’s contest was Blue Mountain’s hustle at both ends of the floor. The Eagles dominated on the boards, came up with the majority of the loose balls, and defensively forced the Fillies into mistake after mistake.

“We made some adjustments at the half; we told our kids to just keep playing hard and play with a purpose,” said Blue Mountain coach Rose Carper.

The Fillies looked crisp early, seizing a 14-11 lead after a quarter of play. They found the open lanes, made key shots, and found each other for open shots.

Behind the scoring and rebounding of Alyia Tikhtova - who had all 10 of her points in the opening half - along with solid support from Carly Minchhoff and Frankie Martinelli, the Fillies built a 26-18 advantage with 2:28 to go in the half.

But, the Eagles were far from packing it in as Emily Heydt ignited a late flurry that cut the lead to 26-23 at halftime.

“One of the changes we made in the second half was getting Kylie Conway and Heydt to the glass,” said Carper about the move that caused Marian all kinds of issues and problems.

Hailey Place and Kendall Koch also played huge roles as the pair combined for 29 points as the Eagles were able to flip the script after halftime.

“Blue Mountain did a great job the second half,” said Marian coach Damian Fritz. “They made adjustments, and we just didn’t do a very good job protecting the ball and shooting the ball. The way we failed to execute our offense was a big disappointment.”

Marian committed four straight turnovers to start the second half, but despite the slow start still managed to expand its lead to 33-25 with 1:29 to play in the third quarter thanks to seven straight points from Minchhoff.

Then quicker than a flip of a coin, the Eagles suddenly found a second wind as Place, Keck, and Conway all scored to draw their team to within 33-31 heading into the final period.

After Martinelli bagged a triple to extend the Marian lead to 36-31 things came crashing down on the Fillies.

With its defense starting to frustrate Marian, Blue Mountain got five straight points from Keck to tie the game at 36-36.

A Place trey, and two technical foul shots by Conway, gave Blue Mountain its largest lead of the night. Before Pugh scored a late basket for the Fillies, the Eagles run had grown to 14-0.

“For whatever reason, we didn’t execute in the second half,” Fritz said. “We had some lapses offensively - which is very uncharacteristic of us. We just couldn’t turn the corner.”

SMOKE BUT NO FIRE … While Blue Mountain was hungry and played with passion, Marian didn’t seem to have the fire or energy to match the Eagles on either end of the court in the final period.

GLASS CALLS … Led by Conway’s eight rebounds and Faust’s seven, the Eagles owned the glass, 37-23. Tikhtova had 10 rebounds for the Fillies.

CHAMPIONSHIP DOUBLEHEADER … The Eagles meet North Schuylkill in the girls final at 6 p.m. with the undefeated Mahanoy Area boys meeting Blue Mountain in the nightcap.

NEXT ... Marian, which was hoping for a shot at its first league title since 2008, heads to the District 11 Class 2A tournament as the top seed. Game are scheduled to begin next week.

BLUE MOUNTAIN

Place 5-2-2-15, Keck 6-1-3-14. Conway 2-2-2-6, Heydt 2-1-4-6. Armenise 1-0-0-2. Faust 1-0-0-2. TOTALS: 17-6-11-45.

MARIAN

Minchhoff 5-0-0-12, Martinelli 4-0-0-11, Tikhtova 4-0-0-10, Pugh 1-1-2-3, Hasara 0-2-2-2. Fritz 0-0-0-0, Thomas 0-0-0-0.TOTALS: 14-3-4-38

Blue Mt. 11 12 8 14 – 45

Marian 14 12 7 5 – 38

Three-pointers: Blue Mountain - Place 2, Keck 1, Heydt 1. Marian - Minchhoff 2, Martinelli 2, Tikhtova 2.