LYNN — There have been lots of memorable games in the history of the Bishop Fenwick-St. Mary’s girls basketball rivalry – one of the biggest coming last year in the state championship final, won by the Spartans.
This year, there will be no rematch of that game as the Crusaders are ineligible for postseason play.
So, you had to think that Tuesday night’s game between the host Spartans and Crusaders may have had a little more on the line for Fenwick, which survived a furious Spartans rally to hold on for a 46-44 win.
“Every game for us is our state championship this year,” said Fenwick coach Adam DeBaggis. “We look at it positively that we’ve made it like that. Before, every game was a buildup to a state championship game, but now, every game is a playoff game. So, this obviously had a playoff feel for us, but definitely every game is big for us this year.”
Both teams gave each other fits when it came to ball security, with each side forcing an abundance of turnovers and each racking up steal after steal.
St. Mary’s played from behind nearly the entire game. Its only lead came in the first minute of play (2-0) after a steal-and-score layup by AJ Hyacinthe.
The Crusaders led 15-10 after the first quarter and began to pull away in the second after a pretty Cecelia Kay (21 points, 8 rebounds) spin-and-scoop made it a 27-16 game with less than a minute remaining in the half.
A Reese Matela (8 points) bucket at the end broke a nearly four minute drought for St. Mary’s and sent the teams into the locker room with Fenwick on top, 27-18.
St. Mary’s Jillian Roberts (12 points) cut the deficit to 27-20 three minutes into the third quarter, but the Crusaders answered right back with hoops from Caitlyn Boyle (8 points) and Kay to go up by 11 with about three minutes left.
The Spartans went on a furious 9-2 run in two minutes – the final a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Bella Owumi (5 points) to climb back into it at 33-29 with eight minutes to go.
It didn’t stop. St. Mary’s carried its momentum into the fourth, going on a 7-3 run to tie things up, 36-36.
But that was as close as the Spartans would come. Fenwick’s Kay, Isabella Lopez-Marin (7 points, 6 steals) and Boyle all hit key shots across the final three minutes to put a lid on the champs.
With three seconds left on the clock and down by two, 46-44, St. Mary’s had a chance to tie the game. Lily Norton, from under her own hoop, fired a long inbound pass to Owumi, but her 3-pointer came up short.
“I’m proud of the way they came back, but we waited too long to get into the way we like to play,” said Spartans’ coach Jeff Newhall. “It certainly has something to do with playing a really good team. We fought back and had a chance to tie or win it, but we just needed to make one more play – one more shot, one more defensive rebound, whatever it is, we just needed one more of something tonight.”
DeBaggis said turnovers allowed the Spartans to get back into the game in the second half.
“We kind of just gave it back to them,” he said. “They’re great, but it shouldn’t have been by two. Thirty minutes into the game, we shouldn’t be making the turnovers we were making one minute into the game. I wish we handled that better, for sure. I think we could have pulled away if we were a little bit tougher mentally. We have to figure that out.”
Newhall said the Spartans “can build off this going forward.”
“We still have some things we need to clean up that are coming up more recently it seems, but they’ve played in a lot of big games,” he said. “Bella is still fighting the flu and I thought she gave us some good stuff, and I thought AJ also gave us some good minutes. We are still moving in the right direction and, tonight, I liked the way we finally got in the flow of the game and were moving shots. It just took us way too long to get into it.”
DeBaggis credited his two post players, Kay and Boyle, for being difference-makers.
“I don’t think a lot of teams have two post players like we do, honestly. They’re both tall and athletic and they can finish at the rim,” DeBaggis said.
The Spartans (9-2) hit the road this weekend to Brooklyn where they will play Colonie High on Saturday and South Bronx Prep on Sunday (times TBD).
Fenwick (7-1) is back in action at Central Catholic on Saturday (3 p.m.).
