“He’s fun to watch, isn’t he!”

“We tried everything to stop him and couldn’t.”

Tyler Fritz is indeed fun to watch and very difficult to defend, too.

John Patton is having a blast watching his sensational sophomore basketball player. And with each outing, he continues to morph into a potential all-state player.

Corey Gerhart, Weatherly’s second-year coach, wishes Fritz wouldn’t have showed up at his gym Monday evening. Gerhart tried every garbage defense he could design, and used traditional ways to keep Fritz off balance ... and they still didn’t work.

By night’s end, Fritz set a career-high of 41 points and set another personal record, shooting 15-for-15 from the free throw line, as he helped carry his team to a huge 75-64 Schuylkill League victory.

The only place Fritz wasn’t perfect was from the field; he shot 10-for-24, including a 6-of-11 effort from three-point range.

More importantly, his Colts (9-7; 6-3) stayed close to the Division 3 leaders — Panther Valley. With the Panthers being upset at Mahanoy Area, it gives Marian a glimmer of hope as PV now stands at 8-2 in the league.

“It was a great team win,” Fritz said. “…this (win) helps us get (closer) to the playoffs.”

Much like the first meeting in December, Marian seized control with a late rally in the second quarter to charge in front 37-26. But the Wreckers stormed back and came within a basket twice in the quarter.

“They kept coming after us, and they are a very scrappy team,” said Patton.

Trailing 44-38, Weatherly freshman standout Scotty Zoscin (17 points) poured in a trey and a deuce to cut the margin to 44-43. However, Fritz was at the other side of the floor drilling a trey from the top of the key and a pull-up jumper to take a 49-43 advantage. The Wreckers’ Gabe Miller and Steph Yurchak answered with baskets to make it 49-47.

“We made a great run there and we just couldn’t get over the hump,” said Gerhart. “They always seemed to have an answer, either with Fritz or someone else.”

That “someone else” was Jarred Maylath, as he poked in a bucket before Fritz sank the final six points of the third quarter to extend the Colts’ lead to 57-49 heading into the final quarter.

“They hit some early shots in that third quarter, but we were patient,” said Patton. And when questioned about Maylath, Patton said, “I was glad to have him back. (He hurt his elbow). We weren’t sure how much he was going to be able to play, (so) we managed his minutes.”

Maylath finished with 10 points, while Chris Ritsick contributed 11.

Despite jumping in and out of matchup defenses, triangle, and man, Weatherly just didn’t make enough stops. Beside Zoscin’s output, Gabe Miller scored 16 and Zach Moon had 11.

“We just couldn’t contain Fritz like we did the last time,” said Gerhart about holding him to 13 the last time out.

HE SAID IT

… “We buy in when he’s doing his thing. He (Fritz) makes everyone on this team better and we feed off of him and what he does,” said Patton.

IN CASE YOU’RE COUNTING

… Weatherly had one more rebound (28-27) than Marian. The shooting numbers had Marian 20-for-49 from the floor and Weatherly 27-of-57.

SPLITSVILLE

… Weatherly rallied for a 56-50 win in the JV game, led by Elijah Derr’s 15, Mason Gerhart’s 12 and Antonio Colecio and Jacob Solonoski with 10 each. Brandon Sabulsky netted 19 for the Colts and Keith McCall had 12.

MARIAN

Stauffer 0-4-4-4, Fritz 10-15-15-41, Agosti 2-0-0-6, Maylath 3-4-6-10, Ritsick 4-0-0-11, Tate 1-0-0-2, McLaughlin 0-0-0-0, Sabulsky 0-0-0-0, McCall 0-1-4-1, Goff 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 20-24-29-75.

WEATHERLY

Derr 0-0-0-0, J. Miller 3-0-0-6, Arthur 0-0-0-0, Knepper 0-0-0-0, Moon 4-1-2-11, Zoscin 7-2-2-17, G. Miller 7-1-1-16, Buck 3-0-0-7, Yurchak 3-1-3-7, Hinkle 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 27-5-8-64.

Marian 16 21 20 13 - 75

Weatherly 15 11 23 17 - 64

Three-pointers: M - Fritz 6, Ritsick 3, Agosti 2; W - Moon 2, Zoscin 1, Buck 1, G. Miller 1.