LYNN — The game may have been a defensive battle from start to finish, but it will be remembered by two clutch baskets made by St. Mary’s guard Niya Morgen.
After Morgen tied the game up with five seconds left and then gave the Spartans the lead with a deep 3-pointer in extra time, St. Mary’s rallied back to take down Pentucket by a score of 63-57 and win the Spartan Classic at Tony Conigliaro Gymnasium Tuesday night.
“Niya was the tournament MVP for a reason, and it wasn’t just because of those big shots late,” said St. Mary’s coach Jeff Newhall. “With Yirsy on the bench for most of the game, a lot fell on Niya’s shoulders. She handled the ball every possession, covered Pentucket’s best player and led us in scoring. She really showed a lot out there.”
Morgen, who was named the Tournament MVP when all was said and done, ended up leading the way for the Spartans with 20 points and three rebounds, while Kellyn Preira was close behind with 19 points and six rebounds and earned All-Tournament Team honors. Yirsy Queliz had a solid game with 11 points, while AJ Hyacinthe scored six points and made a number of big plays down the stretch to help in the win.
The game was a back-and-forth battle from the very start, with St. Mary’s taking an early lead before Pentucket battled right back to tie things at 8-8.
After the Spartans took a 10-8 lead into the second, the two teams battled through two ties and three lead changes before St. Mary’s jumped ahead by five points. But once again, Pentucket battled back to get to within one point and St. Mary’s held a slim 27-26 lead at the halftime break.
Pentucket came out hot in the third quarter and took its first lead of the game, but the two sides continued to go back and forth. There were five lead changes and a tie in the third quarter alone, and once again the Spartans held onto a slim lead at the end of it.
More back-and-forth play followed in the fourth quarter, but then back-to-back threes from Pentucket propelled the Sachems ahead to a 52-49 lead with less than a minute to go.
But then, as the final 10 seconds of the game ticked away, Morgen took the ball up the court and got into 3-point range. She fired up what looked like a prayer of a shot at first, but it swished cleanly through the net to tie the score and send the game to overtime.
Morgen then made the first basket of the overtime period — a deep three — and the Spartans never relinquished the lead from there. Behind some strong play and clutch free throws down the stretch from Queliz and Preira, the Spartans were able to walk away with the close win.
St. Mary’s closes out the regular season at 20-3 and now awaits its seeding in the upcoming Division 3 state tournament.
“This was exactly the kind of game we wanted to play going into the tournament,” said Newhall. “We saw a little bit of everything, and we had a lot of different players step up and make big plays when it mattered. There’s not much more you want to see from your team going into the tournament.”
