Marian might not have had its back to the wall, but the wall was getting dangerously close.

Needing a huge second half of the season to avoid missing the District 11 playoffs for the first time in a decade, the Colts got a crucial win on Thursday night.Playing what coach John Patton called its best game of the season, Marian defeated Schuylkill Haven, 53-43, in Schuylkill League action."They're all playoff games from here on out," said Patton about the fact that his team needed to win at least seven of its final 11 games. "We talked to the kids about this being the start of the second half of the season and how important it was to get off to a good start."I'm really happy with how we responded. We got contributions up and down the line-up. Hopefully, this will serve as the jump start we need."Last night, the jump start Marian needed was provided by a pair of sophomores who are new to the starting lineup.Brandon Mohammad, who was making his first start of the season, had team high totals of 12 points, seven rebounds and three blocks. Jarod Paisley, making just his third start, added seven points."We've played pretty well defensively all season," said Patton. "But we have struggled offensively."We have made some recent changes to try and spark our offense a little bit. I thought Brandon did that tonight. It was a really nice performance for someone making his first-ever start."But Mohammad was far from alone when it came to sparking the Colt offense. Aaron DeAngelo came off the bench for the first time this season and added 10 points and seven boards. Paisley, Mike Vercusky and Nick Wesner all chipped in seven points."The 53 points we scored tonight was our highest point total of the season," said Patton. "But it just wasn't the new players in the starting lineup that made it possible. We use a lot of players and they all played big roles."Aaron (DeAngelo) had a new role coming off the bench and he handled it perfectly. He gave us a lift with his energy and hustle when he got into the game, and guys like Chris Weber and Matt Karnish were also huge off the bench."Despite missing just two shots from the field, Marian trailed 14-10 after one quarter.The Marian (5-7, 2-4) defense began to assert itself in the second quarter and the Colts' offense continued to sizzle. The result was a 13-2 run to start the period that gave Marian a 26-18 halftime lead.A three-point play by Karnish took the steam out of an early Hurricane run to start the third quarter and a three-point basket by Mohammad to close out the quarter had Marian ahead 36-27.Haven made a couple of fourth period charges, but the Colts answered every time."This was our best game of the season," said Patton. "Offensively, I thought we got good shots and knocked them down (the Colts shot 65 percent from the floor); defensively, we played another strong game; and we also won the battle on the boards (33-23)."Now we have to build on this. There is still a long way to go, but I think we're heading in the right direction."SCHUYLKILL HAVENWebb 2-4-6-8, Ulsh 3-0-0-8, Blugis 6-2-2-18, Conage 1-0-0-3, Hughes 2-0-2-4, Fryer 0-0-0-0, Charles 1-0-0-2, Smith 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 15-6-10-43.MARIANKarnish 2-1-1-5, Woitko 0-1-2-1, Vercusky 3-1-2-7, Puza 0-0-1-0, Paisley 1-4-6-7, Kuczynski 1-0-0-2, DeAngelo 4-2-4-10, Mohammad 5-0-3-12, Wesner 3-1-2-7, Weber 1-0-0-2. TOTALS: 20-10-21-53.Sch. Haven 14 4 8 17 - 43Marian 10 16 11 16 - 53Three-pointers: SH - Blugis 4, Ulsh 2, Conage 1. M - Mohammad 2, Paisley 1.