LYNN — The No. 2 St. Mary’s girls basketball team dominated No. 31 Stoneham in the Division 3 tournament Round of 32 Friday night, winning 78-44 at Tony Conigliaro Gymnasium.
The Spartans came out of the locker room to start with a fire that nothing could extinguish, and that fire burned bright all night long. Stoneham kicked off the game with an early bucket to start the scoring, but with a quick follow-up score by CCL Large Division MVP Yirsy Queliz, the Spartans tied the game and never looked back, commanding a huge lead all game.
While the whole team was involved in the offense, the majority of the scoring came from Queliz. Queliz led the scoring for the Spartans with 21 points, followed by Niya Morgen with 16 points and Kellyn Preira with 14 points. Even with the elite showing of the Spartans’ offense, their defense led the way for them to lead by as much as 39 points at one time.
“We just knew that we had to come out with a lot of energy because it is like a new season,” said Preira, talking about the tournament. “We just have to start from scratch, and we can’t worry about what happened during the season.”
Queliz wasn’t just involved with helping her team on the court; she was also involved with motivating her team off the court during halftime.
“I told them we had to come out the way we started the game,” said Queliz about talking to her team during halftime to motivate them. “We came out really strong and really fast. We had to continue to apply that pressure.”
One thing that the Spartans do very well is not dwell on the past. From the guidance of head coach Jeff Newhall, the Spartans are focusing on what’s in front of them.
“We just need to stay focused on what we need to do: playing the game fast and playing the right way,” said Newhall. “This game is over, 16 teams are left, and at this point, we just need to be ready for the next one.”
St. Mary’s (21-3) now moves on to the Round of 16, where it will take on No. 18 North Reading at a date and time to be determined.
