LYNN — The St. Mary’s girls basketball team are once again Spartan Classic champions after defeating Whitman-Hanson 47-24 on Monday night. The win makes it seven Spartan Classic titles in a row for St. Mary’s.
Although both teams boast offensive talent, they both struggled to get going in the first half as St. Mary’s took a 23-16 lead into the break. However, in the second half, the Spartans turned up their defensive pressure and started to force the Panthers into mistakes.
The Spartans held the Panthers to eight second-half points with Whitman-Hanson scoring one free throw in the fourth quarter.
St. Mary’s head coach Jeff Newhall admitted to the offensive struggles his team has had, but praised his team’s defense on the night.
“We’ve been struggling a little bit offensively early in the games. I thought we practiced pretty good yesterday and what we talked about at the end of practice and before the game was to forget about the offense. At some point early, middle, or late we’re going to score points. We have enough people who can score,” Newhall said. “What we can control is our on-the-ball defense and our off-the-ball defense and forcing the pace that we want. The goal coming in was to hold them to under 39 points so we won’t lose the game, then at half, I told them to hold them to under 29 points.”
When the shot isn’t falling, second-chance opportunities can be beneficial and the Spartans dominated the offensive glass to help them find better shots.
“I thought defensively we rebounded the ball extremely well, specifically Bella (Owumi), Reese (Matela), and Charleigh (Green),” Newhall said. “Offensively, we kept a lot of plays alive and got second chance opportunities. Janae (Holmes) and Jill (Roberts) racing down loose balls. The urgency on both ends of the floor is something we’ve been talking about since December. We haven’t seen it a ton, but we know we have the talent to not be great some nights and win, but at this point to play in a championship game we want to win it. To play with that energy on the defensive end I thought was very encouraging.”
Owumi battled being in foul trouble early in the game but in the second half, she took over. Owumi scored nine of her game-high 15 points in the third quarter. The superstar sophomore attacked the offensive glass leading to layups and open shots to extend St. Mary’s lead.
“I thought Bella in the second half fought through some foul trouble. The way she was playing you wouldn’t have known she had three fouls the way she was attacking on offense, attacking the glass and driving the ball offensively,” Newhall said.
Not only was Owumi doing it on offense, but on defense she kept getting her hands on the ball and finding teammates for layups in transition.
Newhall believed his team “wore down” the Panthers with 32 minutes of pressure.
“We wanted to put as much pressure on them as possible from baseline to baseline. Even when they scored a couple of times, to me it seems like it becomes physically and mentally taxing to have to get through our defense each time for 32 minutes,” Newhall said.
Owumi was named tournament MVP while Lily Norton was named to the All-Tournament team.
Now the Spartans will rest and recharge their batteries before they turn their attention to the state tournament.
