Williams edges St. Mary’s For CCL championship

LYNN ? Until they meet again?In a rugged, scintillating battle of two of the best girls basketball teams in Div. 3, the Archbishop Williams eked out a 58-55 win over St. Mary’s, Friday night, at Conigliaro Gym. The Bishops (16-4) clinched the Catholic Central League title with the victory.View Photo GalleryThe game wasn’t decided until Jennie Muccarione’s 20-footer for St. Mary’s (17-2) rimmed out with two seconds left. In a whole-heartedly courageous effort, Muccarione led all scorers with 30 points, more than half of her team’s total. Brianna Rudolph added 15, while Sharell Sanders added 10.Alana Gilmer led the Bishops with 16 points, while Leah Spencer added 14, eight of which came in the fourth quarter. Olivia Conrad and Ednaija Lassiter had nine points each.The two teams could conceivably face each other for a third time next month in the state semifinals at the Boston Garden. One can only hope that their third meeting is as good as their second, which featured nine ties and four lead changes. (Williams won the first meeting, 59-40, in Braintree).”I think we were intimidated by their height and length the first time we played them, so tonight we just told them (Spartans) to just go out and take charge and win all the 50-50 balls,” St. Mary’s coach Jeff Newhall did. “We’re obviously disappointed we didn’t win the game, but tonight’s effort was a vast improvement from the first time we played them.”The Bishops led by six (57-51) when Spencer made a pair of free throws with 1:48 left, but Muccharione answered with his sixth 3-pointer of the game from the left elbow on the next possession to trim the Spartans’ lead back to three.Neither team scored again until Rudolph made one of two free throws after being fouling hauling in an offensive rebound with 20.1 seconds left. St. Mary’s had to foul Spencer on the ensuing possession. She made the first and missed the second, but Gilmer swept in and grabbed an offensive rebound, forcing another foul of Spencer with 7.4 seconds to go.Spencer missed both ends, and Muccarione took the ball to the top of the key, unleashed a 3-point attempt that was on line, but clattered off the rim and caromed toward the right wing. The miss at the end in no way diminishes Mucciarone’s almost heroic night on the offensive end.”She’s a great shooter,” Newhall said. “She had a little bit of a slump earlier in the season, but good shooters shoot their way out of it.”Muccarione’s 11 points gave the Spartans a 15-13 lead after the first quarter, and her nifty assist to Sanders for a layup gave St. Mary’s what turned out to be their largest advantage of the game at 20-15, with 5:49 left in the first half.The Spartans went without a point for the next 4:02, though, while Williams ripped off a 10-0 run that included seven points from Lassiter. A Muccarione 3-pointer was offset by two hoops from Spencer to put the Bishops on top, 29-23, at halftime.Conrad hit a basket from the block to open the second half and give Archbishop Williams its largest lead of the game at eight, but St. Mary’s answered with a 12-4 run capped by a foul line jumper by Sanders to tie the game, 35-35, with 2:32 left in the third. The teams traded six points each to end the period, and Sanders’ driving layup off a pick by Emily Morris gave the Spartans the lead nine seconds into the fourth quarter.Williams scored the next seven points to take the lead right back, with Gilmer converting a highlight reel 3-point play on a backdoor layup after a feed from Conrad.