Winthrop girls’ season ends at hands of Williams

BOSTON – The Winthrop girls? basketball drive to a state title ended at the TD Garden on Tuesday with a 47-34 loss to Archbishop Williams in the state Division 3 semifinals.
Kristen Siscamanis was the leading scorer for the Vikings with 16 points. She also pulled down 10 rebounds. Nina Bartlette also had a strong game in the post, finishing with 7 points and 7 rebounds for Winthrop, which ended the season 20-4.
But it wasn?t enough to stop Virginia Tech recruit Alana Gilmer and the Bishops. Gilmer dropped 20 points, including 10 in the final frame. Jaylen Williams, who is heading to Penn State, had 9 points and 9 rebounds for the Bishops, while Tayler Wornum had 7 points and 8 rebounds.
This was the final high school game for several of Winthrop?s starters. Siscamanis, Niki Tsiotis, and Maura Lanza all will be graduating this year.
?I?ve had these girls since the eighth grade, it?s incredible to see how far they?ve come,” saidWinthrop coach Ignacio Oyola. “It?s hard to replace leadership like that.”
Siscamanis won?t soon forget playing on the parquet. “I?m proud of what we did,” she said. “It?s been a dream to play here at the Garden, and we finally made it. I wish we could?ve gone on to play more, it breaks my heart that this was my last game.”
The game began as a defensive battle. Williams came out with some great pressure defense and made all its rotations. The Vikings were thrown off at first, but they managed to recover to tie the game after falling behind, 8-2, at the start.
Winthrop also turned up its defensive efforts, getting some key steals for easy transitions points.
Both teams tried to get the ball in the paint early. The Vikings attempted to get the ball to Bartlette down low, but she was held to 3 points in the first half. The Bishops tried to feed Williams or Gilmer, but points near the basket weren?t easy to come by.
Siscamanis really turned it on in the second quarter and had 9 points at the half. Tsiotis was held scoreless before the break.
Winthrop took a 16-14 lead with just over three minutes left in the first half on a great cut to the basket by Siscamanis.
But the Vikings lost momentum just as quickly. Williams? defense was suffocating, and Winthrop had a tough time getting clean looks. The Bishops also dominated the Vikings on the glass, with a 17-10 rebounding edge in the first half.
Williams went on a 7-0 run after Winthrop took the lead, and led at the half, 21-16.
The second half started off with some chippy plays on both sides. After a no-call on what looked like a hard foul by Williams? Asiah Dingle, Siscamanis came back with a hard foul of her own to set a tone. The Vikings found some life after that, playing physical basketball in the post. Bartlette kept working down low, and Tsiotis finally found paydirt on a runner in the lane.
The Bishops? defense tried to counter with even more pressure and some trapping, and it worked enough for them to hold the lead after three quarters, 29-24.
The first four minutes of the fourth quarter were dead even, 5 points for each team. The Bishops continued their full-court pressure, and the Vikings had some trouble with it at times. But once they got the ball inside to Bartlette, she finished the job.
Meanwhile, Gilmer got hot for the Bishops. She came down the court and hit a couple of key jump shots to push Williams out of reach. You can contact Mike Alongi at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @m_alongi.