LYNN — Behind suffocating defense and some big-time shotmaking, the St. Mary’s girls basketball team got back to its winning ways with a 65-18 victory over the Salem Witches at Conigliaro Gymnasium on Friday night. The win comes on the heels of a tough week for the Spartans, as they had dropped their previous two games by close margins to Archbishop Williams and Arlington Catholic.
“Last week was tough with the two losses, but give credit to the girls because we came back and had probably our best four days of practice coming into tonight,” said St. Mary’s coach Jeff Newhall. “Sometimes when you lose two in a row like that you can go in the tank, but we came right back and worked harder than ever, and that translated into a big game tonight.”
The big offensive output was led by junior guard Pamela Gonzalez, who scored 15 points and grabbed two rebounds. Sophomores Gabby Torres and Olivia Matela each registered nine points, while freshman Nicolette D’Itria scored seven points. The Spartans had a total of 11 players register points in the winning effort.
For Salem, sophomore Stephanie Cantone scored five points and five rebounds to lead the way. Genesis Beltre added four points and two rebounds.
To know how this game went down, one needs to look no further than the first quarter. After Salem scored the first basket of the game, the Spartans kicked their defense into high gear and got white-hot from behind the three-point line, sparking an unbelievable 30-0 run to end the quarter.
“If we learned anything from those two losses last week, it’s that we need to be better at everything,” Newhall said. “We needed to be one step quicker defense and a step quicker on offense, and I think we were able to put that all together in this game.”
From that point, St. Mary’s was able to control the pace and tempo of the game as well as get a lot of players some significant playing time, which is critical at this point in the young season.
“We’re still growing and finding our identity,” said Newhall. “We’ve got a lot of young players and transfer players and players who haven’t played much varsity basketball, so everyone needs all the work they can get at this early stage.”
Now even at .500, St. Mary’s (2-2) will turn its attention to next week’s Lynn Christmas Tournament. As the defending champions, the Spartans know that everyone is gunning for them. St. Mary’s defeated Swampscott in the championship game last winter. The Big Blue are a young team this season, but anything can happen. Classical’s unbeaten at 3-0 on the year and English defeated Winthrop earlier in the week to improve to 2-1.
“We know it’s going to be tough this year,” Newhall said. “We’ve had some success there recently, but all the teams in there are quality teams this year. Certainly everyone is shooting for us, and our girls need to understand that. They need to bring their A-game, because if they don’t there’s a good chance we’ll get beat.”
The first game in the tournament for St. Mary’s will be against Lynn English on Wednesday night.
