Having not played a game in nearly two weeks was a concern for Marian coach Paul Brutto coming into last night's match up against Nativity.

Not until the third period did the Fillies hit their stride in running away with a 46-27 victory over the Golden Girls.Marian's rust was evident at the start. The Fillies missed their first 11 shots from the field through the first six minutes, but found themselves down only 8-0.Vanessa Whitecavage's three-pointer at the 2:20 mark broke the scoring drought and she followed with another trey with 1:30 left. Despite the poor shooting percentage and seven points scored by Nativity's Ashley Strausser, Marian was only down five at the start of the second period.During the next eight minutes, it appeared that both teams would battle down to the wire as the game became physical with multiple fouls and players from both teams getting knocked to the floor. Although Nativity scored just two buckets in the quarter, their five free throws helped them keep pace with Marian.Tina Capparell's two free throws with 3:40 to go gave Marian its first lead of the night at 16-14. Then, after falling behind again, this time by a basket, Marian's Madison Stoyer's put back off a missed foul shot at the buzzer sent the Fillies into the locker room tied at 22."Madison's basket at the end there was a motivation we carried into the third quarter," said Brutto. "At the half we talked about not doing what we had practiced all week. We did a better job with our 2-2-1 and ran the floor with good energy."The Fillies hit the hardwood with a third quarter rampage led by the hot shooting of Abbey Whilden. She scored 12 of her game-high 16 points in a five-minute span that saw Marian finish the period with a 17-2 run. Everything clicked for the Fillies, including stellar defensive play that held Nativity to just three field goal attempts for the entire quarter."In the first half, we played team basketball on both ends of the floor," said Nativity coach George Forney. "The second half was the complete opposite. We didn't help each other defensively. We were beaten off the dribble, and we stared at their press.""Marian always plays with intensity. We talked about being ready for that in the second half, but we didn't get the effort we wanted."Marian's shut down defensive play allowed Nativity a total of five second-half points from two field goals and one free throw."We had some nice passes and found the open player for good looks at the basket," said Brutto. "Basketball is a game of momentum and scoring runs. When everything comes together for us, we can certainly dominate an opponent like we did tonight.Whitecavage was Marian's second leading scorer with 11 points. Brenna Karnish chipped in with eight. Nativity was led by Strausser who tallied nine.Marian improved its record to 8-2 while the Golden Girls fell to 3-5 on the season.NATIVITYYordy 0-0-0-0, McClure 0-1-2-1, Clarke 1-0-0-2, Lord 0-0-0-0, Ulsh 0-2-2-2, Simons 0-4-4-4, Warren 2-3-5- 7, Strausser 3-2-3-9, Souchak 1-0-0-2. TOTALS: 7-12-16-27.MARIANWhilden 6-2-2-16, Whitecavage 4-0-0-11, Correale 0-0-0-0, Shaud 0-1-2-1, Agosti 0-0-0-0, Mohan 0-0-0-0, Capparell 1-2-2-5, Knepper 0-0-0-0, Erbe 0-0-0-0, Raabe 1-0-0-2, Karnish 2-4-6-8, Stoyer 1-1-4-3, Mooney 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 15-10-16-46.Nativity 13 9 2 3 27Marian 8 14 17 7 46Three pointers: N - Strausser -1. M - Whilden - 2, Whitecavage - 3, Capparell - 1.