LOWELL — When a team wins three state championships in its last four tries, you could say it’s a dynasty.
Friday night inside of the Tsongas Center, the No. 1 St. Mary’s girls basketball team made more history with another Division 3 state championship, defeating No. 3 Norwell, 46-38, to make it three in four years.
One of many storylines coming into the game was how superstars Madison Oliver (Norwell) and Bella Owumi (St. Mary’s) would perform.
Owumi (19 points), who now boasts three state championships, showed up big time – something a former teammate texted her about pregame.
“Niya (Morgen) texted me before the game saying, ‘You’ve got to really show up,’” Owumi said.
Owumi started hot out of the gate, scoring 14 first-half points. The Clippers began in a 2-3 zone and Owumi made them pay from behind the arc, drilling three triples in the opening 16 minutes.
Jeff Newhall – now a six-time state champion as head coach of St. Mary’s, which moved into first all-time in the MIAA with seven total championships – had a feeling it was going to be a good day.
“I could tell, fairly early on, that we had a pretty good chance. The bar has been set very high at the school, especially this program. Last year, we were in the Final Four. We’re comfortable here. Our program has never lost a game here, so maybe we should rent it out and have our home games here,” Newhall said. “They’re all different and this is a special group. We set out at the beginning of the year to win everything that we could, and we did – starting with the Christmas tournament, the (Catholic Central) league, the Spartan Classic, and now this.”
Reese Matela (9 points), Owumi, and Juliana Conte led the charge in the first half. The Spartans went into halftime with a 26-18 lead, holding Oliver (9 points) to just three first-half points.
When asked if he was surprised that Norwell went with a 2-3 zone, Newhall spoke about his team being well-prepared.
“We’ve seen everything, so it was fine. I think we did a good job for the most part. We settled for a few deep shots, but some of them also went in,” he said. “I expected a zone. I think it’s hard to match up with us.”
The Clippers made a run in the third quarter, but every time they got within one possession in the second half, St. Mary’s answered with a big-time basket – whether it was the 3-pointer from Lily Norton in the fourth, or Conte’s dagger.
Newhall admitted his team shifted its focus during the season. Instead of worrying about how they’re going to find offense, the Spartans decided to lock in on defense.
“We started struggling toward the end of the year – we were a little shaky,” he said. “We changed our approach. We decided to forget about scoring and decided to start holding teams to under 40 points. I don’t think anyone has scored over 40 since.”
With seven seconds remaining in the game and everything just about sealed, Norwell had a chance to hit 40 points, but Owumi raced back and blocked a shot to force a turnover.
And 38 points it was.
When Norwell started to foul late, Matela wanted the ball at the free-throw line to ice the game.
“She started for two or three years and you can see the confidence we have in her. She’s our center and we’re running full-court out-of-bounds plays to get her to the line,” Newhall said. “She’s comfortable in these situations.”
At last, the final buzzer sounded, and St. Mary’s was back on top of Division 3.
“It feels amazing. It was rough going out early last year. We didn’t get the job done, even though we felt we could have,” Owumi said. “Coming back this year, being stronger, we played really good teams during the season and I think it really prepared us.”
Despite more attention on her this season, Owumi didn’t shy away from it.
“I realized a lot of teams are going to focus on me – I take it as a compliment,” she said. “I know I’m a great player and people are going to try and stop me from scoring, but I just have to stay calm and I can’t get crazy. I can’t let my team down.”
After the semifinals, Owumi wanted to “write her own story” after being a role player on St. Mary’s last championship team in 2023.
But friendships last forever.
“We actually just called them – Yirsy (Queliz), Kellyn (Preira), and Niya. We all celebrated with them over FaceTime,” Owumi said. “They were all congratulating us.”
