MOUNT CARMEL - Add perennial Schuylkill League power Marian Catholic to this list to be handily dispatched by Mount Carmel.
The latest victory for the 12-0 Red Tornadoes, a 62-47 win over the Fillies, goes a long way in silencing any critics about the Mount Carmel schedule.
"They're a nice team," Mount Carmel head coach Lisa Varano said. "They're quick, they play really good defense and that had us rattled for a little bit.
"It was a good test, and I'm really happy with the way the girls responded."
The game was a good mid-season test for a team with plenty of postseason aspirations.
"We're working extra hard at practice," Mount Carmel senior guard Kim Andruscavage said. "We definitely want to go undefeated now that we're 12-0 and our big goal is to go farther in states this year."
The game had all the intensity of a state playoff game for the first 15 minutes.
Marian didn't score until four minutes into the game, but Kaysi McLaughlin finished the quarter on a hot streak and the Fillies finished the first with a 12-10 lead.
At that point the game was falling into Marian's lap. The Fillies were athletic enough to break the Red Tornadoes' press, tall enough to challenge shots in the paint and experienced enough to be resilient.
But this was a game for Mount Carmel to show its mettle, not by just scheduling the Fillies, but by taking Marian's best punch and coming back.
It was at the 5:45 mark of the second quarter when the Red Tornadoes took control for good.
Mount Carmel scored on 10 of its last 13 second quarter possessions and turned a 14-10 deficit into a 31-20 half time lead.
Ali Varano and Andruscavage were the major cogs for the Red Tornadoes' potent offense, which has been held under 60 points just once this season.
Andruscavage led the way with 21, while Varano was everywhere and picked up 11. Ranotta Ahrensfield scored a quiet 12 points, but snagged 10 rebounds.
Marian closed to within 10 points in the fourth quarter, but Mount Carmel was able to jog home with the victory and a major shot of confidence going into the second half of its Heartland Conference schedule.
"We had a couple teams drop us at the last minute," Varano said, "so we looked to the Schuylkill League and were able to pick up a couple teams and we were happy to get Marian.
"It's always nice to play teams like this because you don't know what to expect."
The experience should pay big dividends for the season everyone in Mount Carmel has their eyes on - the postseason.
(Dan MacArthur is the former Dan Burda, a sports writer at The News-Item for the past 4½ years who recently had his last name legally changed.)