ITEM PHOTO BY KATIE MORRISON
St. Mary’s Marnelle Garraud attempts to steal the ball away from Revere’s Tatianna Iacoviello.
By KATIE MORRISON
LYNN – Led by Marnelle Garraud’s season-high 38 points, the St. Mary’s girls’ basketball team downed Revere, 65-55, at home on Tuesday night.
After losing just their second game of the season to Lynn Classical on Saturday, the Patriots were looking to bounce back. Unfortunately, they ran into a strong St. Mary’s (16-2) team that has now won eight games in a row.
“They’re an excellent team. I saw them play on Saturday and thought that Lynn Classical played excellent against them, and they’ve won a lot of games in the past couple of seasons so you knew you were going to get a great effort,” said Spartans’ coach Jeff Newhall. “They haven’t really lost much, especially two in a row, so you knew you were going to get a desperate team.”
Revere came out with intensity, but the Patriots had a tough time containing Garraud, who poured in 13 points in the first quarter. Revere limited the rest of the St. Mary’s squad to just four points in the quarter, and went into the second trailing, 17-14. Pamela Gonzalez led Revere with seven points in the quarter.
Garraud kept giving the Revere defense trouble in the second, adding 12 points to her total, including three 3-pointers. The Patriots got four points apiece from their two rebounding threats, Meagan Gotham and Valentina Pepic, both of whom were easily the tallest girls on the court.
Garraud hit a three right before the buzzer to give St. Mary’s a comfortable 33-25 lead heading into halftime.
Revere was able to limit Garraud to only four points in the third quarter, but Olivia Nazaire picked up the slack, adding eight points in the third. Nazaire finished the game with 12 points and eight rebounds.
Five points from Pepic and four from Maritza Scott got the Patriots a little closer, but St. Mary’s went on a run late to go up, 50-37, at the end of three.
This is where things got interesting.
The Spartans started moving a little too quickly on offense and Revere was able to grab a few steals. The Patriots sunk a couple of free throws and pulled down some big offensive rebounds, and closed the gap to seven points. Two free throws from Gonzalez brought Revere within four soon after.
The closest Revere would get to taking the lead was when Gotham grabbed her own rebound and put it back for two points, pulling the Patriots within two.
Garraud made, arguably, the biggest shot of the game with 1:38 to play. Up 53-51, Garraud hit a three to all but put the game away. Another three from Garraud and a quick layup from Mia Nowicki sealed the victory for the Spartans.
“We got up 16 or so, and for some reason we were on a rush on offense and created some opportunities for them,” said Newhall. “Give them credit, they hit their free throws, got themselves back in the game.”
Garraud has now logged five consecutive games with 30 or more points.
“She’s been playing super, just in all phases of the game,” said Newhall. “The situation we dealt with early in the season with the injuries, I think more pressure was put on her, and maybe Olivia, to score and they certainly responded.”
The game of basketball is weird, (Garraud’s) on fire in the first half, and in the second half they extend the zone and she couldn’t get anything, and then in the fourth she hits a three that’s kind of the end of the game,” Newhall added. “I feel bad for Revere, because I’ve been on the other end of that. You’re back in the game and you think you’re in a good spot, and then that happens. We had some big hustle plays in that possession, and when you’re hustling and playing hard you do get good breaks once in a while.”