NORTHAMPTON – The Marian Catholic boys basketball team was up against a strong and powerful Executive Education Academy squad in Friday’s District 11 Class 2A quarterfinal at Catasauqua High School.

EEA’s Chico Whyte and Jevin Muniz led the scoring affair for the Raptors in a 62-35 victory over the Colts.

Muniz was the high scorer on the night with 21 points, while Whyte chipped in 14.

“It was a battle,” Executive Education Academy head coach Ray Barbosa said. “I think Marian is a really good program. I think they have really good players. They spread us out and they have quick guards, really tough and physical.

But today we were able to get out of transition and really make some shots. That was the difference in the game.”

Marian Junior Tyler Fritz had multiple players defend him throughout the game. Despite the Raptors’ harassing defense, Fritz led the way for the Colts with 13 points.

“I thought he played well,” Marian head coach John Patton said of Fritz. “He had two or three different guys on him and that’s tough. We had some guys make some shots to take a little bit of pressure off of him. It’s tough.

“Tyler tried to get other people in the flow and at the same time had to try and create some shots for himself. (Against their defense), that wasn’t easy.”

The strength and agility of the Raptors appeared to be too much for the Colts. Executive Education stormed right out of the box by out scoring Marian 18-6 in the first quarter. The Colts outscored EEA in the second quarter and got as close as nine points during the period, but couldn’t get any closer.

“I thought we had the momentum in the second quarter,” Patton said. “We got a stop, it was a nine-point game. We don’t score, they do. I think that changed the momentum for us going into halftime.

“They’re really athletic. They don’t have any weaknesses. We were hoping they would miss some shots, but then they made enough of them to force us to create a lot more offense than we had hoped we would need.”

With the win, Executive Education will play Mahanoy Area on Tuesday in a District 11 semifinal. Marian Catholic ends the year 12-11.

GETTING OFFENSIVE … “Offensively, I thought we were good,” Barbosa said. “Defensively, I thought we gave up a little too much. Too many offensive rebounds. We got the win, so let’s move forward and practice on Sunday and Monday to play on Tuesday.”

OUTMANNED … The Colts made some changes to try and counter Executive Education Academy’s strengths, but they were to no avail. “We like to play man-to-man (defense), but we knew we were outmanned,” said Patton. So, we went to a zone and we did some good things, but they had some guys make some shots and we couldn’t overcome that.”

FIRST YEAR BALLIN’ ... Executive Education Academy is playing its first season of varsity basketball even though the school has been around for a few years. The Raptors’ schedule was comprised of mostly District 3 and District 12 teams. “We’ve been out of the area a lot, which is good for the guys,” Barbosa said. “Travel is challenging, but I think playing road games against strong opponents did nothing but make us better.”

MARIAN

Fritz 5-1-2-13, Ritsick 3-0-0-7, Agosti 2-0-1-5, Sabulsky 5-0-0-10, Cerullo 0-0-0-0, McCall 0-0-0-0, Goff 0-0-0-0, Ceruasio 0-0-0-0, Eroh 0-0-0-0, Latoff 0-0-0-0, Rickert 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 15-1-3-35.

EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

Rockmore 4-2-2-10, Way 1-0-0-3, Torres 0-0-0-0, Foster 2-1-2-5, Whyte 6-2-2-14, Mills 2-2-2-6, S. Magee 0-0-0-0, Newsome 0-0-0-0, K. Magee 1-0-0-3, Muniz 8-0-0-21, Nonirit 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 25-7-8-62

Marian 6 16 3 10 - 35

EE 18 15 13 16 - 62

Three-pointers: M – Fritz 2, Ritsick 1, Agosti 1; EE – Muniz 3, K. Magee 1, Way 1