SWAMPSCOTT — High school athletic teams always save their last home games for “senior night,” where the 12th graders are honored for their careers.
Wednesday, at Swampscott High, it was the seniors’ night, where the Big Blue girls basketball team’s 12th graders were bound and determined they were not going to lose their last game in their gym.
And as it turns out, the Blue had just enough to make that a reality, surviving a late-game surge by North Reading to defeat the Hornets, 49-47, to advance in the Division 2 North tournament.
No. 4 Swampscott, 16-5, will play the winner of the Pentucket-Wilmington game scheduled for tonight in the North semifinal.
“These seniors were not going to lose their last game on their home floor,” said Big Blue coach Katelyn Leonard. “And I was very happy that all three of them did their own special thing. It made it nice.”
The tri-captains were the backbones of the victory. Nikki Rosa, who survived bumping heads with a Hornet player during the fourth quarter, finished with 19 points, 16 of them in the first half, as well as 12 rebounds.
Guard Grace DiGrande, besides her flawless ball-handling, poured in 15 points, including two free throws in the final seconds to ice the game. They proved even more significant after North Reading’s Lauren Sullivan hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to account for the 2-point margin.
“I guess we were trying to make things interesting,” Leonard deadpanned.
And guard Katie Watts may have only scored six points, but three of them — on her second trey of the game — came at perhaps the most critical point in the game. Swampscott had built a 10-point lead (39-29) at the end of the third quarter, but Rosa had knocked heads with a North Reading player midway through the final period. As soon as she went out, North Reading’s Julia Howse (15 points) hit two hoops and a free throw to bring the Hornets to within five. That’s when Watts went bombs away from the parking lot to make it 44-36 with 3:25 to go.
“That was huge,” said Leonard. “But you know, she’s done that a few times this season. Just when we’ve needed someone to deliver that nail in the coffin, she’s come up with it.”
The game was close throughout. A 3-pointer from DiGrande at the end of the first quarter allowed the Big Blue to lead 15-14, and they extended the edge to three (24-21) at the break.
Swampscott’s best quarter, by far, was the third, as it outscored the Hornets 15-8. The Big Blue got a huge boost off the bench from Brooke Stout, a junior forward, who scored six points at the end of the third quarter and beginning of the fourth.
Even though Watts’ 3-pointer gave the Big Blue an 8-point lead, North Reading kept hanging around, employing a trap defense in hopes of getting some steals and quick hoops. It came close to working. The Hornets whittled the lead down to three points with under a minute to go before DiGrande’s two free throws gave Swampscott some breathing room.
“We just played hard,” said Leonard. “That’s what we talked about beforehand.”
