Spartan girls continue their dominance of Bishop Fenwick

LYNN — The future is now for St. Mary’s.Led by two juniors in Gianna Moschella and Kayla Carter, and a pair of freshmen with Olivia Nazaire and Marnelle Garraud, the Spartans defeated rival Bishop Fenwick, 49-31, at the Tony Conigliaro Gymnasium.Moschella, who finished with a dozen boards and a team-high 16 points, and Carter (11 points) provided the poise and veteran leadership when the Spartans struggled with Fenwick (5-3) in the opening quarter. The Crusaders jumped out to a 9-6 lead with just under two minutes to play, but could not deal with the unrelenting attack from Nazaire (11 points, six assists, nine rebounds) and Garraud (five points, four steals) over the course of 32 minutes.”Those two freshmen have fit in very nicely,” said St. Mary’s coach Jeff Newhall. “Their basketball IQ is off the charts for 14-year-olds. Playing at home in front of a big crowd against a rival in Bishop Fenwick was big for them.”The win, which marked St. Mary’s 12th straight over Fenwick, was decided on the defensive end.”St. Mary’s is just so aggressive defensively,” said Fenwick coach Adam DeBaggis. “We have a tough league, but we don’t see too many teams that fast-paced or aggressive.”St. Mary’s (8-2) completely discombobulated Fenwick (5-3) with its defensive pressure.Nazaire and Garraud harassed the Fenwick guards, and Temi Falayi (16 rebounds) and Amanda Idusuyi (nine rebounds) patrolled the paint and forced the Crusaders to alter their shots. Fenwick shot 22 percent from the floor, going 12-for-54, committed 24 turnovers and only had one player score in double figures.”We were mentally tougher,” said Garraud. “It’s a rival team and we were home, but we executed well on offense and we shut them down on defense.”St. Mary’s was dealt a rare loss earlier in the week from Arlington Catholic, and the Spartans admitted that defeat helped the team prepare for Fenwick.”We wouldn’t have had this win without the loss at AC,” said Moschella. “That loss taught us to play physical, and that’s exactly what we did against Fenwick.”Moschella did a tremendous job of containing Fenwick’s Colleen Corcoran. The talented Fenwick forward — who finished with 19 points, 14 rebounds, and five blocked shots — shot 7-for-18 from the field and struggled to finish with Moschella forcing her out of the paint.”They’re very athletic, and their defense is tough,” said Corcoran. “We couldn’t finish on our drives tonight, and that was a weakness for us.”After trailing by only four (13-9) after one, Fenwick was simply unable to generate any offense the rest of the night. St. Mary’s lead grew to 25-15 at the half, then 39-23 after three.”I’m really nervous every game until I walk out into the floor, then I just play,” said Nazaire, who lives in Peabody. “A lot of my friends are on that Fenwick team, so I had to show them I could play.”The Spartans led by as many as 21 before finishing with an 18-point victory.”Our rebounding and will to win were the keys to the game,” said Newhall. “At the end of the day, our defense and ball pressure were the difference.”Justin Barrasso can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @JustinBarrasso.