LYNN — Behind a solid team effort, the St. Mary’s girls basketball team rolled to a 75-13 win over KIPP Academy Friday night at Tony Conigliaro Gymnasium.
St. Mary’s featured 12 different scorers with a handful of reserves logging key minutes.
Gabby Torres led all scorers with 15 points, while Pam Gonzalez and Krystana Manthorne each scored nine points. Ellie Riordan finished with eight points off the bench.
“It’s always good to get everybody in the game,” Spartans coach Jeff Newhall said. “I thought some of the younger girls did some good things. I have to give KIPP credit. We’re playing 23 games this year and they’re the only team that reached out to us to play. (KIPP Athletic Director) Anthony Grimaldi’s a good guy and he’s trying to build an athletic program there. They reached out to us to see if we wanted to play.
“Because of the success of our girls and boys basketball teams there aren’t a lot of teams that want to play us. There’s a lot of teams that are trying to stay away from us at all costs. I give KIPP credit for bringing their kids down the hill to play the game.”
Tatiana Megie-Maddrey led KIPP with nine points and Tope Mafo scored four points.
“Tatiana’s only a freshman,” Panthers coach John DePasquale said. “She’s a talented young lady. It’s her first high school season. We have a lot of girls with talent but not a lot of experience. St. Mary’s players, the biggest difference is they play more in the offseason. That was really the big difference.”
Olivia Matela started the game with a 3-pointer on the opening possession and the Spartans wasted no time opening the floodgates. The Spartans proceeded to score the next 20 points and claimed a 23-0 lead before KIPP’s Megie-Maddrey ended her team’s drought with a floater. At the end of the first quarter the Spartans were all over the Panthers with a 23-2 advantage.
It was much of the same in the second quarter. Yirsy Queliz kicked off the period with back to back baskets to bump St. Mary’s lead to 27-2. St. Mary’s reserves came off the bench, and a handful of them joined the scoresheet. Ajhalae Acevedo, Van Nguyen and Riordan each scored in the second quarter. For the Panthers, Mafo netted a jump shot and Megie-Maddrey added a bucket. The Spartans carried a 40-6 lead at halftime.
St. Mary’s reserves continued to play solid basketball in the third. The Spartans held KIPP off the scoreboard until Megie-Maddrey swished a pair of free throws at the end of the period. After three quarters, St. Mary’s led 61-8.
Megie-Maddrey and St. Mary’s Alyssa Grossi each scored five points in the final quarter.
“I loved the effort and I loved the attitude,” DePasquale said. “The kids played together, they played hard. St. Mary’s is probably a bridge too far for us this winter and that’s OK. It’s Lynn-Lynn and our girls were excited for that reason. We’re just going to keep working and improving.”
KIPP (4-2) hosts Fellowship Academy next Monday (5).
The Spartans (7-2) bounce back into their Catholic Conference League schedule next Monday (6:30) when they visit Spellman.
“We just went through a week of playing Lynn teams,” Newhall said. “We’re moving on from that. We have to go back into our league starting Monday, a league we’re 1-2 in.”
