Winthrop, Danvers ready for Garden party

Having the chance to play on the hallowed parquet floor at TD Garden in Boston is what most high school basketball teams in Eastern Massachusetts aspire to do. For the Winthrop girls? and Danvers boys? teams, that dream becomes a reality on Tuesday.
Both teams won Northeastern Conference/South titles during the regular season but will face a whole new set of challenges in the Garden.
Winthrop will face Archbishop Williams at 2:15 p.m., while Danvers takes on Bishop Feehan at 7:30.
For Winthrop, getting to the Garden is a new experience. The Vikings had to survive a crazy final stretch against Bishop Fenwick on Saturday in the Division 3 North final at Tsongas Center in Lowell before escaping with a 37-34 victory.
Archbishop Williams is no stranger to big games at this time of year.
Under coach Jim Bancroft, the Bishops will be making their fourth appearance in the last six seasons at the Garden, having won there in 2013 on the way to a state title. Last year, Williams lost a heartbreaker to eventual state champion St. Mary?s.
Both Winthrop and Archbishop Williams are led by a talented group of seniors who have been through plenty of big games.
For Winthrop, the big question is how to contain the troika of Alana Gilmer, Jaylen Williams and Taylor Wornum.
Gilmer is on her way to play in the Atlantic Coast Conference at Virginia Tech and Williams is signed to play in the Big 10 at Penn State. Wornum, meanwhile, will be playing in Division II at Stonehill College.
The Bishops have rolled through all contenders so far in the tournament, winning by an average of 28.5 points in four tournament games. Winthrop, on the other hand, needed to get past a pesky Ipswich team in the quarterfinals before close wins in the semifinals and on Saturday.
The task of stopping Gilmer and Williams on the inside likely will fall on the shoulders of seniors Nina Bartlette and Kristen Siscamanis. It was that duo?s play down the stretch on Saturday that helped calm things down when the Vikings were in jeopardy of letting the North final slip out of reach.
Danvers is no stranger to playing at the Garden. The Falcons? win over Arlington on Saturday in the Division 2 North final at Tsongas Center in Lowell marked their third sectional title in four years under coach John Walsh.
Before Walsh arrived to take over the reins at Danvers five years ago, the Falcons program was in disarray. Since then, the Falcons have won back-to-back Division 3 state championships in 2012 and 2013, three North sectional titles and 103 out of 123 games.
The Falcons are led by all-everything senior Devan Harris. He has been simply dominant during the state tournament for Danvers but especially in the last two games when the Falcons have been pushed to their limit. On Saturday against Arlington Harris had 26 points and 11 rebounds.
Danvers is not a one man band though as Vinny Clifford, Devonn Allen and Peter Merry give the Falcons plenty of options.
Clifford was held in check for the most part on Saturday but his big three-pointer in the late going gave Danvers the lead for good while Merry has 11 blocked shots in the last two games.
The Falcons will face a team that they?ve already gone against this season in Bishop Feehan.The two teams played in the Division 2 semifinals of the Comcast Tournament in Woburn during February vacation, ending up in a 60-56 Danvers win. Allen was the leader of the pack in that win, scoring 13 points and adding nine rebounds and six assists.