LYNN — The St. Mary’s girls basketball team won every quarter on Friday night en route to a 72-39 victory against the Crusaders of Bishop Fenwick.
In a star-filled matchup – including two 1,000-point scorers in St. Mary’s Niya Morgen and Fenwick’s Cecilia Kay – Morgen shined the brightest. The senior guard scored 25 points in, frankly, every way imaginable.
“This is it, this is her life,” St. Mary’s head coach Jeff Newhall said. “She can pull up and shoot it. She’s a deadly outside shooter, but she can attack the hoop as good as anybody.”
St. Mary’s also got a great game from eighth grader Bella Owumi. The Lynn native scored nine of her 11 points in the first quarter, including a layup that put the Spartans ahead 11-0 early.
“They were ready to go,” Newhall said. “We got the pace we wanted and I thought we played really well on both ends.”
Fenwick scored its first points at the four minute mark of the first on a Celia Neilson layup. Kay followed with a block on the other end, but the momentum was short-lived in a quarter that favored St. Mary’s 20-7.
Kay scored 22 points in total – 12 from the free throw line – but was forced into tough shots throughout the first half.
“For the first 12 minutes of the game when I thought we just kind of took control of the game, I thought we did a really good job on everybody, including her,” Newhall said. “Obviously Kay is a tough matchup for anybody.”
Fenwick head coach Adam DeBaggis said his team competed, but admitted his young group played with “tunnel vision” at times.
“I’ve been there – I’ve played as a young player,” DeBaggis said. “We just need to work on our composure.”
Then came the highlights. In the second quarter, Morgen spun around two defenders before connecting on a circus shot to extend the St. Mary’s lead to 38-18.
“She works on those moves that I say ‘You’re wasting your time,’” Newhall said. “You might do it once in your life, but she did it tonight – that one move – and now she’s probably going to tell me ‘I told you.’”
Sophomore Reese Matela scored at the buzzer for the Spartans, who headed into the break with more than double the amount of Fenwick’s points (40-18).
The third quarter was the Morgen show. She had 22 points by the end of the frame, and caused trouble from the perimeter as well as at the rim – a theme St. Mary’s executed very well.
“If they get to the hoop, they’re either going to score or kick it out to an open shooter – it’s hard,” DeBaggis said. “They didn’t miss many tonight.”
The fourth was more of the same, and St. Mary’s took things all the way to victory. Kellyn Preira impressed as well with 19 points for the Spartans.
“I think we played nine people and everyone contributed,” Newhall said.
