Swampscott girls win Division 3 state semifinal

BOSTON – Swampscott girls basketball coach Jack Hughes could only look back at the two times he’s taken teams to the Boston Garden – and come away crushed.”I just think back to those teams ? the crushing disappointment ? the kids crying,” he said. “I just hope that somewhere the Meaghan O’Malleys, McKinley Tennants and Tara Driscolls have a smile on their faces Monday.”They can smile because the Big Blue have finally cleared a hurdle. Monday, they won in the Garden.The win, a harder-than-it-looked 67-51 victory over Archbishop Williams, puts Swampscott in their first-ever state final Saturday at the DCU Center in Worcester.”It’s the dream of any coach ? to come here and win at the Garden,” said Hughes.”Just like its North Sectional final win over Pentucket Saturday, the Big Blue had to contend with a big girl in the middle. Saturday, it was Kirsten Daamen. Monday, it was 6-foot-4 center Valerie Driscoll. And, just like Saturday, the task of guarding her belonged to Tara Nimkar, who is only 5-foot-9. “We were a little worried about her,” Hughes said. “She spends all day Saturday with one girl, and has to come back today and deal with another. But she did great.”She also had help. Tara Gallagher, also 5-foot-9, helped double Driscoll. And between the two of them, she only wound up with 11 points.”It was Tara’s job to keep her out, and once she got the ball, I came over and helped,” said Gallagher, who was also effective in guarding Daamen Saturday. “She did such a great job.”Where Nimkar and Gallagher had the yeoman task of dealing with Driscoll, Allie Beaulieu and Kara Gilberg more than compensated on the other end. Beaulieu finished with 23 points, and Gilberg contributed 22 – 14 of them from the foul line.”That was our plan ? go the basket aggressively,” Gilberg said. “That’s what we’ve been doing all year.”Swampscott only trailed in the early going, and once it got the lead up, Williams only crept back into the game once – midway through the second quarter. Otherwise, the Blue kept the Bishops at arm’s length all evening. They led by six after one quarter, and at the half (33-26) by seven.A 10-4 run late in the fourth quarter, punctuated by a Marissa Gambale steal and layup, catapulted the Big Blue to a 54-38 lead after three, and they coasted home from there.