English, St. Mary’s, advance in Spartan girls hoop classic

LYNN – Deidra Newson catapulted the English girls basketball team to a 63-57 victory over Masconomet in the second Division 1 game of the Spartan Classic on Sunday night at Conigliaro Gym.The score was tied at 57 and the shot clock was winding down. Newson (22 points and 8 rebounds) was looking to find one of her teammates before she launched a deep three-pointer that went through the net to give the Bulldogs a 60-57 lead with 30 seconds left.”Masco was playing unbelievable defense,” said English head coach Fred Hogan. “That was a big shot.”On the ensuing play, the Chieftains forced a deep shot from beyond the arc that fell short. Masco’s Meghan Collins collected the rebound, but English stole Collins’ pass as she was falling to the floor.English had trouble inbounding the ball from underneath the basket at Masco’s end of the court and Hogan had to call another timeout. The Bulldogs were able to get the ball in and Catherine Stinson was fouled with 10.3 seconds left. Stinson hit the front end of a one-and-one to hand the Bulldogs a two-possession advantage. The Chieftains missed a three-pointer that sealed the win for English.Neither team took full control of this game. Masco scored the first few buckets in the fourth quarter to take a 51-44 with 6:24 remaining. Newson hit two treys, including a 4-point play as the Bulldogs went on an 11-1 run near the halfway point of the final frame.Masco jumped out to a 14-9 advantage, but English sliced the Chieftains’ lead to one point (20-19) after the first stanza. The second quarter was the complete reversal of the first. Both teams committed several turnovers as the defenses increased their intensity. English had several opportunities to expand their lead, but they failed to convert layups and open jumpers. The Bulldogs scored four points in the final 20 seconds on a free throw by Diondra Woumn and Stinson knocked down a three off an offensive rebound at the buzzer as English took a 33-26 lead into the locker room.”We went into a bad lull,” said Hogan. “We were ready to turn the game into our style of play, but we went into a crazy lull.”Masco forced 11 English turnovers in the third quarter as they got back into the game. A long three-pointer by Nicole Femino at the final horn allowed the Chieftains to go ahead 45-44. It set up the frantic final eight minutes.”They picked the full-court pressure up on us,” said Hogan. “We had trouble bringing the ball up a little bit, but after a while we handled it pretty good.”English moves onto the championship game to play Lexington tonight (5:30).St. Mary’s 50, Withrop 42In the second game of the Division 3 preliminary, the Spartans got 25 points and 12 rebounds from Brianna Rudolph to reach the final tonight (7:30) against Ipswich.Also playing well for St. Mary’s, which had trouble shaking the pesky Vikings, were Sharell Sanders (10 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists and four steals) and Jennie Mucchiarone (9 points, 4 assists).”I give Winthrop credit (for hanging in there),” said St. Mary’s coach Jeff Newhall. “Physically and emotionally, we didn’t bounce back as well as we’d have liked after the Williams game (a tough defeat).”That was anticipated a little bit, though,” Newhall said.After three quarters, the score was 41-32, but Winthrop went on a 7-0 run to close to within two points. However, almost immediately thereafter, the Spartans went on an 8-0 run to ice the game.Niki Tsiotis led Winthrop with 13.