St. Mary’s comes up short in OT against Somerville

For The ItemLYNN ? No doubt the St. Mary’s girls basketball team will miss Brianna Rudolph, but this was a game the Spartans should have won without her.Leading by 10, St. Mary’s scored just two points in the last five minutes of regulation and overtime and lost, 55-47, to Somerville, in a non-conference game on Friday night at Conigliaro Gym.”When you’re up by 10 with the ball with five minutes left, you should win 100 percent of the time,” St. Mary’s coach Jeff Newhall said. “We just broke down, emotionally and physically.”Click here for a photo gallery.The Spartans also had a hard time stopping Somerville guard Indira Evora, who led all scorers with 32 points. No one else scored in double figures for the Highlanders (1-2).”She’s a heck of a player,” Somerville coach John DePasquale said. “She’s so quick, but what makes her so special is her appetite and hunger to play hard on defense.”With Rudolph (broken ankle) watching from the bench, Sharell Sanders led the Spartans (3-1) with 13 points, while Jennie Mucciarone had 11 and Ann Marie Iduyusi added 10.Trailing 45-35, Somerville scored four straight points and then went to a passive 2-2-1 zone press, which didn’t create a lot of turnovers but forced the Spartans to hurry their offense just enough. Evora brought the Highlanders to within two with a couple of hoops, and then Melissa Baptista tied the game with a put-back bucket with 59 seconds left.Sanders had the best chance to break the tie, but her jumper from the top of the key rolled around the rim and out. Idusuyi’s jumper from the free throw line was short with 1.1 seconds left, and Somerville couldn’t get off a shot before the buzzer ended regulation.”We had a hard time getting off shots, and the shots we took weren’t very good ones,” Newhall said. “And I don’t think we went to the free throw line. We have to be more aggressive going to the basket when we have a lead like that late in the game.”Esther Joseph nailed a 3-pointer from the top of the key on the Highlanders’ first possession of overtime, and then Evora made a pair of free throws to give Somerville a five-point lead with 3:01 left. Things got desperate for the Spartans when Idusuyi fouled out with 1:53 to go, and only Sanders’ drive to the basket kept St. Mary’s from getting shut out in overtime.”This is a big win for us,” DePasquale said. “They’re a quality team that’s well-coached. It should give us some momentum heading into the holiday break.”Somerville led by as many as nine points (16-7) in the second quarter before St. Mary’s switched to a zone defense to try to contain Evora. Mucciarone’s baseline drive capped a 9-0 run with 3:35 left in the first half to tie the game, and the Spartans closed the half on an 8-0 run to take a 28-20 lead into intermission.St. Mary’s expanded its lead 11 early in the third quarter and then again early in the fourth when Idusuyi posted up on the right block.