Basketball: O’Connell sets St. John’s Prep scoring mark

Ryan O’Connell scored 31 points for St. John’s Prep Thursday, becomming the school’s all-time leading scorer. The Prep went on to defeat Malden, 77-73, at Danvers.O’Connell scored his 1,000th career point. He need four points heading into last night’s game to overtake Matt Symes (’99) as the all-time leading scorer. O’Connell has 1,270 points. At one point in the game, O’Connell hit six in a row from the floor.”Overall he’s a tremendous scorer,” Prep coach Dan Letarte said. “He breaks up runs.”The Eagles (11-6) were in control for the first three quarters, but things got a little hairy down the stretch with Malden outscoring The Prep 27-17 in the fourth quarter. Brendon Felder, a sophomore from Lynn, had nine points, but his biggest was the free-throw he hit with 11 seconds remaining that put the Eagles up by four points. Felder also had six rebounds, five steals and 10 assists.GIRLS BASKETBALLMalden 53, St. Mary’s 48At Malden, the Spartans won’t be heading to the tournament this year. The game was up for grabs most of the way, with nine ties and 11 lead changes, but Malden got the job done at the free-throw line where they hit 13 of 20.Tori Faieta led the Spartans with 15 points. She also had five blocks and 12 rebounds. Cassi Amena had 12 points and eight rebounds and Amy Bozarjian hadFaitta had five blocks and 12 rebounds to go along with her numbers. Amenta eight rebounds to go along with her points. Bozargian had seven assists to go with eight points.Fenwick 57 Tewksbury 53 (OT)At Fenwick, the Crusaders (9-9) need one win to qualify for the state tournament after pulling this one out of the fire. Tewksbury (12-7) tied the game to send it into overtime, where Fenwick seized control. Melissa Garabedian had three big free throws including two with 3.5 seconds remaining to seal the win. Lauren DiCarlo (14 points), Bria Tiro (14 points) and Amy Pelletier (12 points) took care of the bulk of the scoring.Winthrop 68, Saugus 35At Winthrop, Kristin Finn and Nicole Giaquinto racked up 18 points each and Katarina Mallios contributed 17 for the Vikings. Courtney Finn also hit double digits with 13 points. The Sachems were led by Diana Davis (10 points). The bad news for Winthrop is that Giaquinto took an elbow to the nose and coach Peter Grimes is waiting to hear if it’s broken.Danvers 64, G’ster 58At Danvers, the Fishermen (12-6) had a letdown after stunning Swampscott earlier in the week. Danvers’ Danielle Sherry (25 points) and Kelly Macdonald (11 points, 11 rebounds) got the job done offensively for the Falcons (12-6, 11-7 Northeastern Conference). Freshman Hannah Cain had 19 points for the Fishermen, who found themselves trailing 20-6 early on.