St. Mary’s girls hoop rides guards to win over Peabody

LYNN – A week ago, the St. Mary’s girls basketball team was looking for direction after leading scorer Brianna Rudolph went down with a broken ankle. They may have found their way with a couple of stellar guards at the controls.Click here for a photo gallery of last night’s gameJennie Mucciarone led all scorers with 21 points while Sharell Sanders added 19 as the Spartans (5-2) pulled away from Peabody, 62-40, Friday night, at the Conigilaro Gym.Carolyn Scacchi paced the Tanners (3-2) with 12 points. Olivia Summit added nine.As much as the guards carried most of the offense, the Spartans got some tremendous work on defense, limiting the Tanners to just 16 points and three field goals in the second half.”I thought we did a much better job of playing half court defense tonight,” St. Mary’s coach Jeff Newhall said. “We got some good shots and we took the ball to the basket well in the second half, but a lot of what were able to do was because of how well we played on the defensive end.”Both centers – Peabody’s Scacchi and St. Mary’s Ann Marie Idusuyi – battled foul trouble in what was a physical game. The teams combined for 50 free throws, a lot of which came after some banging under the boards.”We’ve got to put the ball in the basket,” Peabody coach Jane Heil said. “I thought we did a nice job on the offensive boards, but we couldn’t make the (second chance) shots. Now whether there should have been fouls called, I can’t say, but give St. Mary’s credit. Their defense was great. They’re a tough team.”The Spartans got some key minutes from backup center Emily Morris, who took over in the last two minutes of the first half and the last four minutes of the game, after Idusuyi fouled out.”We were able to go eight deep tonight,” Newhall said. “Whether it was for 10 or 12 minutes or 32 minutes, we got contributions from everyone who played.”Nobody played a bigger role than Muccarione, who seemed to come up with a key make every time the Spartans needed one. Her 3-pointer from the top of the key put St. Mary’s ahead, 7-6, for the first time with 2:32 left in the first quarter. With Scacchi on the bench with two fouls for the final 6:58 of the first half, St. Mary’s lead stretched to six on three occasions in the second quarter, before a 10-footer by Peabody’s Cara Singer sliced the Spartans’ lead to 28-24 at halftime.St. Mary’s bolted out of the locker room with a 9-0 run to begin the second half, starting with a 3-pointer by Sanders bookended with a steal and layup to increase the lead to 13. Scacchi had to come off the bench and scored five straight points to make it 37-29, but she picked up her third foul with 1:19 left in the third quarter.The Spartans quickly got the lead back up to double digits, and a three by Muccarione with seven minutes left to play in the game made the score 45-31. Peabody was unable to convert a field goal after Scacchi made a nice under-and-up move with 6:50 left to play.A slashing move to the basket by Sanders, then a jumper from the top of the key and two free throws by Muccarione with 1:43 remaining advanced the lead to 10 (57-40) and negated any chance of a late Peabody comeback.