Alainna Poisson has family ties that run deep at Marian Catholic.

Poisson, a senior and four-year varsity point guard for the Spartans, is the younger sibling of former star Janae Poisson, who went on to play basketball at Northern Illinois.

Big sis is never far away now, though. She’s an assistant coach for Marian Catholic’s JV team and sits on the bench for the varsity games.

“I feel what I learned from her is composure,” Alainna said. “Being a point guard, leading a team and being more vocal.

“Being a coach here definitely helps me even more. She gets on me whenever I’m doing bad and just lets me know, and that just helps me.”

An older sister getting on a younger sister? Come on.

“Definitely,” Janae said with a laugh. “You have to. Our dad was that for me, so I try to be that for her.”

Alainna proved there’s more to the game than scoring Friday night.

Yes, she connected on a trio of 3-pointers in a 49-34 East Suburban Catholic Conference victory over visiting Marist in Chicago Heights, finishing with nine points. But she also had eight assists and four rebounds.

More importantly, her stifling defense contributed to the team’s 13 steals.

Junior guard Taylor Bolton paced the Spartans (10-4, 3-1) with 18 points, while senior guard Madison Davis contributed 16 points, nine rebounds and eight steals.

Marist (4-11, 1-2) was paced in scoring by sophomore guard Lucy Cosme and junior forward Madison Vrdolyak with eight points apiece. Vrdolyak added five rebounds.

Janae Poisson, who graduated in 2016 from Marian and went on to a fine career at NIU, continues to be impressed with what her little sister is accomplishing.“I feel she has a higher IQ at her age than I did when I played at this age,” she said. “I think she just sees the floor so well and she’s always looking for her teammates to score.

“It’s never about her. She’s probably a lot more selfless than when I played here.”

Marian Catholic coach Dan Murray said Alainna is the team’s floor general and does so many unsung things.

“Getting us into our sets, running our transition, she’s always very solid defensively,” Murray said. “She’s becoming a little more of a verbal leader for us from that point guard spot — to make sure everybody is in their right spots, doing what they are supposed to do.”

Alainna recalls the first shot of her varsity career, a layup attempt against IC Catholic that didn’t even hit the rim.

“It was really bad,” she said. “And when coach took me out, he was like, ‘You’re going to remember that shot forever.’”

“I remember that,” Janae quipped. “I was at her first game. That was pretty funny.”

The point that Murray made about being more verbal is important to Alainna Poisson (pronounced POY-zahn) because it speaks to the growth in her leadership.

There’s a link, she believes, between her vocal approach and what the team accomplishes.

“The more I talk, the more it gets me into the game,” she said. “And the more it gets my teammates into the game.”

Alainna also would love to play basketball in college and study a subject in the arts, like design, but she’s in no hurry to make any decisions quite yet.

Right now, she’s content with running the point for the Spartans and being the defensive complement to highflying scorers in Davis and Bolton.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen in the future,” Poisson said. “Really, just wherever life takes me.”