LYNN — After being surprised by Cathedral on Dec. 14, it was protected to say the St. Mary’s ladies basketball staff had Friday evening’s assembly with the Panthers circled on the calendar.
And for a short while, it regarded just like the Panthers may be in place to ship a second loss to the defending D3 champs. But after getting down 21-19 early within the third quarter, the Spartans responded just like the champs they’re with a devastating 18-0 run that led the best way to a 52-33 win.
“We knew that this game was important because we had to get them back for the last time,” St. Mary’s senior Kellyn Preira stated.
Preira led all scorers within the sport with 16 factors because the Spartans overcame three starters in foul bother heading into the second half.
After Cathedral’s Hijjah Allen-Paisley (15 factors) and Jasmine Day-Cox scored back-to-back hoops to offer the Panthers a 21-19 lead, Reese Matela scored to tie the sport and spark a game-changing run.
Preira buried her third triple of the sport earlier than Yirsy Queliz obtained her first hoop of the evening to make it 27-21. The Panthers referred to as timeout to try to cease the momentum but it surely was to no avail as St. Mary’s tenacious protection stifled them at each flip.
By the time Queliz buried a long-range shot from the precise wing as time ran out within the third, the Spartans had turned their 21-19 deficit right into a 37-21 lead after three. From there the Spartans’ lead by no means obtained decrease than 14.
“We came out on fire but I felt fortunate that we had the lead at halftime with all the foul trouble we had,” St. Mary’s coach Jeff Newhall stated. “In that third quarter we were able to get people where we needed them to be and the score and pace began to wear them down.”
The margin as the top belied how shut and tightly fought the primary 16 minutes had been as Preira scored seven early factors to steer St. Mary’s to a fast 9-0 lead. Cathedral reduce the deficit to 9-7 after one earlier than the Spartans ballooned the lead again to 9 because of a 7-2 spurt keyed by Matela’s inside play.
Cathedral didn’t go away although because it responded with a 7-3 run to shut the half down 19-16.
“Reese and Kellyn really kept us in the game in the first half,” Newhall stated.
Source: www.bostonherald.com
