LOWELL — Her shots may not have been falling as consistently as she would have liked, but when junior Kellyn Preira needed to make a play for the St. Mary’s girls basketball team, she did it however she could.
With the No. 2 Spartans holding a two-point lead with 2.2 seconds to play, Preira came up with the play of the year when she blocked the shot of Rockland’s Maddie Hermenau to give St. Mary’s a 46-44 win to take home the Division 3 state championship Friday night at the Tsongas Center.
“On the last play, we didn’t know what they were going to run, so we just took what they gave us,” said Preira. “When I saw her go around the screen, I knew she was looking for the ball. I let her catch it, and when she went up I just knew I couldn’t let it go in, so I had to make it work.”
The win is technically the second straight state title for St. Mary’s, who took home co-champion honors in 2019-20 when the COVID-19 pandemic canceled all of the state championship games that year. There were no state championships played in any sport during the 2020-21 season.
“We’ve been waiting something like 700 or 800 days to play this game, and it’s a great feeling to finally get it done,” said St. Mary’s coach Jeff Newhall.
Preira finished the game with 16 points, seven rebounds and six blocks in the victory.
“She made the play of the year there,” said Newhall. “To have her, as a guard, go up against a scholarship post player and play as well as she did was incredibly impressive. There’s a difference between doing what your coach tells you and doing that thing well, and Kellyn played very well out there.”
Fellow junior Yirsy Queliz also finished with 16 points and added six rebounds, while Bella Owumi finished with six points and six rebounds and Niya Morgen added five points and seven rebounds.
The first half was about as back-and-forth a half as you could have. After St. Mary’s scored the opening basket, the two teams traded off three ties and four lead changes before the Spartans took a slim 15-13 lead into the second quarter.
Two ties and two lead changes followed to start the second, but St. Mary’s was eventually able to settle in a bit at both ends of the floor. After a tough floater in the lane from Morgen and a deep three from Queliz, the Spartans were eventually able to extend their lead to as many as seven points and take a 26-19 lead into the halftime break.
But the second half got off to a shaky start for St. Mary’s, who allowed Rockland to go on a 9-2 run to open the third quarter and tie the game at 28-28. The Spartans regained their composure from there, but still only held a one-point lead, 34-33, going into the fourth.
The final quarter was just like the first, as the two teams battled through two ties and eight lead changes. With one minute to go, the score was deadlocked at 44-44.
Then, as time wound down, Queliz did what she’s done all year and stepped up with a big shot. She dribbled in a few feet from the 3-point line, pulled up and drained an 18-footer to give the Spartans a 46-44 lead with 24 seconds to play.
“She could’ve hit the two free throws after that to help with my heart rate a little bit,” said Newhall. “But she’s been such a clutch player for us all year and she’s always good to make that shot.”
After a couple of possessions that came up with no points on either side, Rockland earned a sideline inbound with 2.2 seconds to play and Preira came up with possibly the block of the year.
St. Mary’s finishes the season at 25-3. The win was also Jeff Newhall’s 350th of his storied career.
“The hardest part about all of this is that we wake up tomorrow and there’s no practice and the season is over,” said Newhall. “But now we get to enjoy this one, refocus and come back next year with a great group and try to do it all again.”
