Big Blue Readies for final

SWAMPSCOTT? As the cast of Les Miz would say, it’s “One Game More” for the Swampscott girls basketball team. And what a game it is.The Big Blue will play Central Mass. opponent Quaboag in the Division 3 state final at the DCU Center in Worcester on Saturday morning (10:45). It is coach Jack Hughes’ first trip to the championship game with the Big Blue.”I think they can’t wait for the game,” Hughes said about his players. “They wish the practices were over.”Today, they will be. The team will practice for the last time this season, and Hughes is aware of what this means.”It’s a nice thing to say that we practiced on the last possible day,” he said.The Big Blue’s opponent, Quaboag Regional Middle/High School, is located in Warren, and serves the towns of Warren and West Brookfield. The Cougars bring a perfect record into Saturday’s game.”We scouted them the other day when they defeated Lee (in the sectional final),” Hughes said. “They’ve got to be a very good team. They’re undefeated. They’re a real powerhouse in the central part of the state ? They have a couple of big girls who are very good. They will be a very good challenge for us.”Part of that challenge will be height-related. The Cougars seem to have a height advantage over the Big Blue. But, Hughes said, this has been a trend throughout his team’s state tournament run against taller squads.”It’s sort of like every time, we’re quite a bit smaller,” Hughes said, ticking off teams the Blue has faced in the postseason. “Weston, Stoneham, Pentucket, Archbishop Williams. Quaboag has a couple of six-footers. We have kids who have battled (taller players) all year and done pretty darn well.”Indeed, Swampscott has compiled a 22-2 record this season, thanks to players like Tara Nimkar and Allie Beaulieu, both of whom surpassed the 1,000 career-point milestone in 2008-09. And the Blue has found ways to compensate for its smaller size.”We play a very fast game and a full-court defense,” Hughes explained. “We put a lot of pressure on a team’s perimeter. Our post people, Tara Gallagher and Tara Nimkar, work real hard down low. We will not let you just walk the ball up court.” And on offense, he said, “We like to beat you by aggressively pushing the ball up court.”It sounds like this strategy has worked wonderfully this year, and before the season even began, Hughes had an inkling his team would do well. After all, the season before, the Big Blue won an NEC South title and advanced to the second round of the state tournament, where it lost to Pentucket for the second year in a row.”Expectations were very high,” Hughes said.Another possible reason the Blue has done so well in recent years – Hughes took his teams to the Garden in 2003-04 and 2004-05 – is because girls basketball has become a hallmark of the town.”It’s one of the bigger sports up here, with soccer,” said Hughes, citing the presence of CYO and AAU basketball.No matter who wins on Saturday, change will come in the off-season. Beaulieu will go on to play basketball for Bates. Nimkar is considering the University of Michigan or the University of North Carolina – Hughes said he was not sure if she has made her final decision yet – and has decided to forgo basketball to focus more on academics.But on Saturday, the team will unite for one more road trip. Hughes said the Big Blue will probably leave at quarter to eight. Hughes, who has coached the team in separate stints (eight years in the 1980s the first time around; he returned eight years ago, taking time off and coaching the Beverly boys in between), has never taken a team to the DCU Center.”We’re just trying to get ready and stay in shape,” said Hughes, who reports everyone in healthy condition. “We’ve just got to tune everyone up and show the kids what we think the team is going to do.”