When Williams Valley arrived in Hometown last night, Marian's John Patton was given unexpected information from veteran Vikings head coach Denny Casper that just may have saved his team's season.

After being told that Nick Rodichok and Siul Sepulveda were sick and didn't make the trip, Marian's fading playoff chances were given a new lease on life, as the Colts easily disposed of a short-handed Vikings squad, 43-26.Rodichok and Sepulveda (Williams Valley's two leading scorers) account for nearly 60-percent of their team's offense and contribue approximately 30 points per game. Without them in the lineup, Williams Valley (who suited up just eight players) never stood a chance."It's that time of the year," noted Patton in regards to teams dealing with sickness. "It happened to us just a few games ago with Brandon Mohammed, and it's a tough thing to overcome."Williams Valley is already in the playoffs though so they didn't have the pressure of having to win tonight, whereas we were out there fighting for our lives. We've been able to get two big wins this week, and we'll certainly take that, regardless of the circumstances."Marian raced out to an early 16-3 lead in the opening quarter and held Williams Valley to just nine first half points, as the Colts jumped out to a commanding 30-9 halftime advantage. The Colts ended the second quarter on an 11-0 run thanks in large part to Ethan Kuczynski, who scored all of his game-high 11 points in the first half."We came out with some good offensive sets and got some easy looks, which allowed us to get a little bit of a lead and some breathing room," stated Patton. "From there, we just continued to run our offense. We got some fast break points and we got some good shooting tonight, and that's going to be big for us down the stretch."With the win, the Colts improve to 8-10 overall and 4-6 in the League with four games remaining. To qualify for the District 11 playoffs, Marian needs to win three of their last four games or else win both of their remaining League games against Lourdes Regional and Weatherly, who both have sub .500 records."We keep talking to the kids about the window of opportunity," added Patton. "Every time we lose, the window gets shut a little bit tighter. Right now we're just trying to do our best to hold it open, and the only way to do that is by winning basketball games."Backing Kuczynski was Brandon Mohammed and Nick Wesner, who both contributed seven points apiece. Mohammed also pulled down six rebounds for the Colts.For Williams Valley (11-10, 7-6), Jake Wolfgang and Cody Miller had eight points apiece.WILLIAMS VALLEYReinoehl 0-0-0-0, Zimmerman 1-0-0-2, Weist 0-0-0-0, Wolfgang 3-2-3-8, Whitcomb 1-0-0-2, Mini 1-3-4-6, Miller 4-0-0-8, Ulsh 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 10-5-7-26.MARIANKarnish 1-1-2-3, Woitko 1-0-0-3, Vercusky 3-0-0-6, Puza 0-0-0-0, Karchner 0-0-0-0, Paisley 1-0-0-2, Kuczynski 5-1-2-11, Cortese 0-0-0-0, DeAngelo 1-0-0-2, Latham 1-0-0-2, Mohammed 2-3-4-7, Wesner 3-1-1-7, Weber 0-0-0-0, Myers 0-0-0-0, Carmona 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 18-6-9-43.Williams Valley 5 4 8 9 - 26Marian 16 14 11 2 - 43Three-Pointers: Williams Valley - Mini 1; Marian - Woitko 1.