Winthrop finally gets past St. Mary’s

DANVERS – Over the past two years, the Winthrop girl?s basketball team has developed a rivalry with St. Mary?s, having lost four straight games in the span, including a defeat in last season?s Division 3 North title game.
On Wednesday evening, the No. 2 Vikings turned the tables with a 47-44 semifinal victory over the third-seeded Spartans at Essex Tech in Danvers.
?That?s a major weight off of the (Winthrop) program?s shoulders,” said Vikings coach Ignacio Oyola, whose team advances to the sectional final where they will meet No. 4 Bishop Fenwick on Saturday at Tsongas Center in Lowell at 10:30 a.m.
?St. Mary?s has been a thorn in our side these past couple of years so we?re hoping that this win will finally get us over the hump,” added Oyola.
In 2014, the Spartans leaned heavily on the backs of their famed ?Big Three? of seniors Jennie Mucciarone, Brianna Rudolph and Sharell Sanders, en route to their state championship.
One year later, a trio of big-game Vikings will hope to do the same and their performances on Wednesday hinted that they?re ready to do so.
Kristen Siscamanis, who had a game-high 19 points, and fellow senior co-captain Niki Tsiotos combined with junior Nina Bartlette, who had 13 points and was an unstoppable force inside the paint throughout.
?I thought she played very well, but it?s the other things Winthrop does that make her so good,” said St. Mary?s coach Jeff Newhall of Bartlette.
?Tsiotos is athletic and runs the point very well and Siscamanis has become their best player. So having the kind of presence Bartlette creates certainly makes them hard to stop.”
Siscamanis opened the game with seven points in the first quarter, which Winthrop finished leading, 12-8, after St. Mary?s freshman Marnelle Garraud (team-high 13 points) scored from in close with 10 seconds remaining.
Tsiotos scored each of her four points in the opening eight minutes before foul trouble limited her offensive numbers for the remainder of the game.
The Vikings led by as many as seven (18-11) in the ensuing period before St. Mary?s clawed back to tie the score at 20-20 following a fast-break layin from junior Kayla Carter (8 points).
A three-pointer from sophomore Allie Love along with four late points from Siscamanis allowed Winthrop to enter halftime ahead, 27-21.
The teams combined for a rather uneventful third quarter, highlighted by a tremendous display of hand-eye coordination from Bartlette, who tracked down a pass from Tsiotos under the basket before an athletic layup.
Trailing, 36-27, entering the final quarter, the Spartans cut the deficit to five following a three-ball from Garraud, who went on to foul out with 4:25 remaining.
Junior Gianna Moschella?s (11 points) basket off of an inbounds pass made it 45-42 with 30 seconds but that was as close as the Spartans got.
?We feel terrible right now but we won 18 games this season,” said Newhall, who will lose only one senior (Sophia Holmes) to graduation. “Moving forward, I think these girls will do a better job of understanding the magnitude of the game and what it takes to win on a stage like this.”Matt Fraser can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @MattFraserDI.