ROME - Seniors Carly Minchhoff and Frankie Martinelli, and their Marian Fillie teammates wanted to make sure Friday night wasn’t the last time they would put on their uniforms for the 2023-24 cage season.

So they turned up the intensity against the District 4 Northeast Bradford Lady Panthers, leading from start to finish in a 54-42 triumph that advances them to the next round of the PIAA Class 2A playoffs.

Minchhoff tallied 21 points and Martinelli netted 17, advancing coach Damian Fritz’s Hometown diocesans to Tuesday’s second round against the Northern Lehigh Lady Bulldogs - the same team that beat the Fillies in the District 11 semifinals last week.

Unlike the slow starts they fought through in their past several outings, the Fillies jumped out to leads of 5-0 and 9-2 in the first three minutes of play, thanks to a triple and deuce by Minchoff and a pair of two-pointers by Martinelli as the visitors set a tempo that was hard for the hosts to keep up with.

“We had a couple of good practices this week, and the girls knew we were in a win or go home situation, so we came out with more energy and with a little edge, and we were fortunate enough to get the win,” said Fritz, whose team improved to 21-5.

While they wasted little time in getting points on the board, the Marian defense played extremely well, forcing seven NEB turnovers in the first stanza, six more before the intermission and 22 overall.

With Minchhoff tallying seven points and reserve Olivia Thomas scoring five, the Fillies used a 19-10 second period advantage to open up a 29-16 lead at the break.

The interior game, Fritz said, proved to be the difference.

“We felt we could take advantage of our height advantage we had with Carly and Addy (Fritz, his daughter) underneath. We thought that they couldn’t stop both of them. Carly ended up having the better match-up, and we fed her the ball nicely.”

The Lady Panthers, who closed the season at 18-8, hung around through the middle periods, cutting the Fillie lead to five at one point. But while seniors Minchoff and Martinelli were balancing the offensive attack, Thomas provided the Fillies key minutes and production in the second stanza. She came off the bench and had five points, two rebounds and forced a NEB turnover as the Fillies opened up a 13-point advantage.

“Olivia was a sparkplug for us in that second period. Because of her, we maintained the lead we had,” Fritz said.

The Lady Panthers, behind sharpshooting Leah Beebe, still would not go away, getting to within six, 41-35, when the talented guard hit the second of her three triples with 4:11 left in the game. But the Fillies answered with six points by Deanna Pugh and four free throws by Martinelli to keep the hosts from getting any closer.

“No. 1, it was a great atmosphere and a great venue,” Fritz said. “I was really happy with the way we rebounded the ball offensively, with 11 in first half, including nine in the first quarter. And Frankie (Martinelli) handled the ball well against their press. But credit to them (NEB). They played hard and are a scrappy team. And No. 5 (Beebe) is phenomenal.”

For the Fillies, advancing to Tuesday will give them a chance to not only get a rematch with Northern Lehigh, but they’ll have another chance at advancing beyond the second round, having been eliminated at this stage in each of the past two years.

“After (losing in) the leagues and districts, we still want to hang a banner,” Minchhoff said. “This win feels good, because we realize we didn’t play our best earlier in the payoffs. We hit a rock for a few games, but we still have a lot to prove.”

Martinelli added, “The environment was great. We worked this week on playing a full four quarters. We turned up the intensity and played a full game.”

Fritz closed, “We weren’t looking past this game, but we did see the brackets and saw where we had a chance to meet Northern Lehigh again. We’re looking forward to Tuesday night because our girls want to show everyone we’re better than what we had shown (last time).”

MARIAN

Pugh 2-3-6-8, Martinelli 6-5-6-17, Fritz 1-0-0-3, Minchhoff 8-3-4-21, Tikhtova 0-0-0-0, Hasara 0-0-0-0, O. Thomas 1-3-4-5, Corrado 0-0-0-0, K. Thomas 0-0-0-0, Hannis Miskar 0-0-2-0, Osenbach 0-0-0-0, Katner 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 18-14-22-54.

NORTHEAST BRADFORD

Beebe 4-0-2-12, Hughes 0-0-0-0, M. Maynard 0-0-0-0, L. Maynard 1-0-0-2, Neuber 3-2-3-9, Thomas 5-2-5-13, Vandemark 3-0-0-6, Russell 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 16-4-10-42.

Marian 10 19 6 19 - 54

NE Bradford 6 10 10 16 - 42

Three-pointers: Marian - Minchhoff 2, Pugh 1, Fritz 1; NE Bradford - Beebe 4, Neuber 1, Thomas 1.