Girls hoop: English, St. Mary’s draw top seeds

Strap on the seat belt. The MIAA state basketball tournament ride is about to begin.Lynn will be well represented on the girls side, with English and Classical looking to make some noise in Division 1 North and St. Mary’s in Division 3 North.English coach Fred Hogan will have a busy week, coaching his team, scouting the opposition and watching his son, Freddie Hogan, play for the English High boys team, which also made the post season. The English girls don’t play until Saturday when they’ll face the winner of Billerica/North Reading at home at 7 p.m.The Bulldogs head into the tournament as the top seed in Division 1 for the second year in a row. Their 22-0 record is the best start in the history of the program, topping last season’s 20-2 regular season mark. Last year, English drew a bye and defeated Medford in the first round before bowing out to Andover in the quarterfinals.Hogan said one of the things that has defined the team this year is its defense. The other factor he’s hoping will propel the team deeper into the tournament this year is the challenging non-league schedule it played (Arlington Catholic, Newton North, St. Mary’s and Masconomet).Then there’s the deadly senior trifecta of Catherine Stinson (15 points) Deidra Newson (14.9 points) and Diondra Woumn, 14.5 points per game. Stinson eclipsed the 1,000 career-point milestone and Woumn is knocking on the door. All of them have scored over 300 points this season.”The three of them combined for over 3,000 (career) points,” Hogan said.All three have been key to the team’s success since arriving as freshmen and now it’s their turn to lead.”There’s no one else to look up to. It’s up to them. They really have to step up to the challenge,” Hogan said.Classical will be new to Division 1 this year under the updated alignment. The Rams, who finished with an 11-11 record to nab the 11th seed, will play at Andover Wednesday (7).”I’m proud of the kids and what they accomplished to qualify for the tournament,” coach Tom Sawyer said.Although Andover has a new coach this season, Sawyer is expecting to encounter a traditional Andover team – meaning aggressive and talented.”They’re a good team and they play in a good league (the Merrimack Valley Conference),” Sawyer said. “They have a good inside presence and good guard play. They’re calling card is aggressive defense for 32 minutes. We’re going to need to play well defensively to stay in the game.”The Rams will be counting on four-year varsity starters Franki Galeazzi and Kristin Lauria to shoulder the load, along with three-year varsity player and fellow senior Christine Connolly. Lauria has been battling knee problems that could limit playing time, but Sawyer said they won’t know until game time.”She’s a warrior,” Sawyer said.Last year Classical lost to Burlington, 60-55, in the first round.St. Mary’s, like English, has a trio of high-powered guards who hit the ground running as freshmen and never slowed down. Brianna Rudolph, who will be playing Division 1 basketball at the University of Massachusetts Lowell next winter, is averaging 19.5 points per game. She currently has 408 points this season, breaking her own single-season scoring mark of 402 points. Tufts University-bound Jennie Mucciarone,averages 15.7 points and is second behind Tori Faieta (now playing at Stonehill College) on the girls all-time scoring list. Sharell Sanders is good for 12. 6 points a game. She’ll be heading to Division 2 Caldwell College in the fall where she also plans to play.St. Mary’s will play the winner of Brighton/Charlestown Friday in a Division 3 North quarterfinal game at St. Mary’s (7).The Spartans reached the Division 3 North semifinals last year where they lost to Watertown. The earlier-than-hoped for exit from the tournament is something coach Jeff Newhall sees as a learning-experience of sorts.”We talked about it. You don’t look at the bracket, the ifs and and buts. You don’t worry what the next game will be. We found out the hard way