MIAA girls hoop: English, St. Mary’s, Classical set to go

St. Mary’s girls basketball team’s second consecutive 16-win season was awarded with a fourth seed in the Division 3 tournament. The Spartans were not delivered a lay-up in the first round however, as they will host Weston next Thursday at 7 pm.”The draw wasn’t necessarily a good one for us,” St. Mary’s coach Jeff Newhall said. “They are a very good 14-win team coming out of one of the stronger conferences in Eastern Mass. Weston will provide a significant challenge, but we think we have a good team that has enough to stay in the tournament for a while.”The Spartans have three players who finished the season averaging more-than 10 points a game: Bria Tiro (15.5), Tori Faieta (15.1) and Cassi Amenta (13.7).”I think we have some good momentum heading into the tournament,” said Newhall. “The days of just being happy to get in are over. We’ve played as tough of a schedule as anyone in Eastern Mass.”The Spartans arch-rival Fenwick drew the seventh seed in division four and will play Watertown, who feature one of the State’s better centers Brittany Obi-Tabot, at Endicott College on Monday night at 8 pm.”(Obi-Tabot) is just terrific,” Crusaders coach Tim Harrington said. “She will be the focal point of their team. But we’ve faced players like her in our conference all season.”Harrington hopes to lean on senior-captains Sidney Southern and Lizzie Trainor, who have previous tournament experience.Swampscott drew the ninth seed in Division 3 and will travel to Bedford on Tuesday at 7 pm for the right to play familiar foe Pentucket.”Bedford is very good team from a very good league with a lot of good experience,” Big Blue coach Jack Hughes said. “If we get past them, we will play Pentucket for the fourth year in a row in the tournament. Of course we have to think of Bedford first though. We can’t worry about Pentucket until we win that first game.”Peabody (17-3) earned the fourth seed in Division 1, and will host old Greater Boston League rival Everett on Monday at 7 pm.”We’re pretty happy (with the draw),” Tanners coach Jane Heil said. “We were hoping to win that last game, but with the way it worked out we will get to host two games. That’s, of course, if we can win the first game.”Revere (16-4) will host Lowell on Tuesday at 7 pm after earning the fifth seed in Division 1.”We don’t know much about Lowell other than what we have read in the newspaper,” Patriots coach Diana DeChristoforo said. “The girls are psyched. We just have to do what we do best – which is pressure the ball and be patient on the offensive end and look for good shots rather than just the first shot.”English (17-5) drew the sixth seed in Division 1, and will host Masconomet on Monday at 7 pm.NEC rivals Classical (10th seed) and Danvers (seventh seed) will face each other on Wednesday.