LYNN — Just 10 seconds into Monday’s state tournament game between Newburyport and host St. Mary’s, the Spartans had already scored a basket and registered a steal – a telling first page of a dominant book.
The pressure turned into a 10-3 lead after two minutes. The next thing you knew, St. Mary’s Coach Jeff Newhall was clapping his hands along the sideline as Newburyport players gathered for an early timeout.
“I thought tonight was the first time we played from the opening whistle,” said Newhall, whose top-ranked Spartans took down No. 16 Newburyport, 73-39, in the Division 3 Round of 16. “It relaxed us and we were able to provide a ton of pressure.”
That pressure rarely stopped, as active hands and a stifling press defense kept the Clippers on their heels. Newburyport scored just 11 points in the first quarter and six in the second.
For leading scorer Charleigh Green (15 points), that was music to her ears.
“Points don’t matter. We will score and points will come,” she said. “Everyone has to be locked in on defense.”
Steals and deflections turned into transition baskets, and an early hole was too much for Newburyport, a 15-win team with solid size.
“I saw them play during the regular season,” Newhall said. “They have size, a really strong post player, and you can tell they have athletes and really strong kids. We felt that we had to apply constant pressure.”
To the Clippers’ credit, they held the Spartans scoreless for the first four minutes of the third quarter, but the bottom four minutes were all St. Mary’s. Green scored back-to-back baskets before sharpshooter Juliana Conte buried a buzzer-beating triple to end the quarter (57-30).
Bella Owumi caught eyes with a crafty reverse layup during the fourth quarter, but the story was the versatility of the Spartans.
“Reese (Matela) and Charleigh had really good games inside, Lily (Norton) had a good game, Sysy (Emmanuel) did a lot of good things, hitting shots and getting into the paint, and Juliana hit a couple of threes,” Newhall said. “We’ve been deep all year.”
When asked about the first two games of the tournament, Newhall said there was improvement from the previous round (68-16 win against Belchertown).
“I thought, the other night, we won, but didn’t play well,” he said. “Tonight, we won and played well.”
Perhaps the play of the game came from Green, who blocked a Newburyport shot before delivering a perfect lead pass to Owumi for a layup.
“I try to get my teammates open for the easiest baskets they can get,” Green said. “Last game, we came out a little shaky… but this game, we came out strong and hard.”
St. Mary’s (22-3) punched its ticket to the Round of 8 against No. 8 East Bridgewater or No. 9 Norton. Those two teams square off Tuesday at 6 p.m.
“Hopefully, tonight was a sign of things to come,” Newhall said. “We’re here with eight teams left. Now, we just go back to practice and figure out who we’re going to play next.”
