It probably wasn’t easy for the Marian boys basketball team to sleep Monday night.

The Colts’ restless sleep was because of Mahanoy Area’s Shane Miller. A superb 6-5 talent, Miller had a bonus night for the Bears as he laid a 30 spot in the scoring column and added 20 rebounds.

Miller’s big game produced nightmares for Marian and led Mahanoy Area to a 63-52 Schuylkill Division 3 victory.

Normally a sharp-shooting team, Marian struggled in all phases of the game. Not only couldn’t the Colts put the ball in Lake Hauto on the offensive end, but they couldn’t contain Miller on the defensive side.

“We wanted to get as much help on Tyler Fritz as possible, but we didn’t want to give up easy shots either,” explained Mahanoy Area coach Ethan Eichhorst. “(Fritz) is such a great player. We had Maz (Chase Mazalusky) and Noah (Atkins) switching on and off him as much as possible. And we got a lot of backside help from Miller.”

In other words, three guys showed up every time Fritz crossed the halfcourt line.

“Mahanoy comes out and they get in your grill, they play hard and it takes its toll on you,” said Marian coach John Patton. “They tried to take Tyler out of the game. On the other hand, we got 52 shots, so it’s not like we didn’t have some chances.”

As much as the Bears were clawing and defending, they were able to seize early momentum because of Atkins’ offense (13 points). He drained two triples to open the contest and by the first quarter’s end, Mahanoy scurried to a 15-12 lead.

“Atkins hit those early shots and they fed off of it. We went to different lineups to get the tempo up, but they did a good job of keeping us in check,” said Patton. “They got that early lead, then Miller got hot.”

The Bears moved from a three-point lead to a commanding run surging 26-16, led by Mazalusky and Miller. They both recycled missed shots, and right near the close of the first half built a mountain of momentum.

Chris Ritsick and Brandon Sabulsky brought the Colts to the fore for the first time, slicing the deficit to 28-23. But in a jiffy, the Bears were back in the driver’s seat as Miller went on a frenzy with a spinning move in the paint, before draining back-to-back triples that zoomed his team to a 34-23 halftime lead.

“That late second-quarter run was so important for us,” said Eichhorst. “I thought Marian was getting back in it, but our defense forced some bad shots, and we came down the floor and Miller really took over.”

Marian made a run in the third quarter on the wings of triples from Fritz and Ritsick that cut the deficit to 36-30. But in a big swoosh, the Bears were racking up points and racing to an 11-point bulge and the Colts never could recover. Miller and Mazalusky were the culprits in that run.

“We didn’t have an answer after that,” said Patton. “But we will recover.”

Marian only has one night to sleep on it as the Colts take a long bus ride to Hegins Wednesday to face Tri-Valley.

JACKING IT UP … Mahanoy Area didn’t shoot it overly impressively, going 21-for-52 from the floor. Marian went 20-for-52.

LEADING THE WAY … Fritz scored 19 points, Ritsick connected for 13, Sabulsky tossed in nine and Dante Agosti had eight for the Colts. Usually that’s enough to win most games. But it all boiled down to rebounding, where Mahanoy Area had a 42-31 edge. Miller had 11 offensive boards.

SPLIT CITY … Marian won the opener 67-43. The Colts were led by Chris Latoff with 18 points and Logan Fritz with 13.

MAHANOY AREA

Miller 9-9-9-30, Atkins 4-2-4-13, Mazalusky 4-2-7-9, Ramos 2-1-4-5, Crespo 2-0-1-4, Feliciano 0-1-3-1, Marcellus 0-0-0-0, Merchlinsky 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 21-15-30-63.

MARIAN

Fritz 7-3-5-19, Ritsick 5-1-1-14, Sabulsky 3-1-2-9, Agosti 4-0-0-8, Malarkey 1-0-0-2, Cerullo 0-0-0-0, McCall 0-0-0-0, Goff 0-0-0-0, Grutza 0-0-0, Latoff 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 20-5-8-52.

Mahanoy A. 15 19 10 19 - 63

Marian 12 11 10 19 - 52

Three-pointers: MA - Miller 3, Atkins 3; M - Ritsick 3, Fritz 2, Sabulsky 2.