PHOTO BY BOB ROCHE
Pamela Gonzalez puts up a shot.
By KATIE MORRISON
HAVERHILL — The Revere girls’ basketball team couldn’t do much to slow down point guard Marissa Gattuso and Division 1 North second seed Woburn Saturday at Whittier Tech. As a result, the Tanners topped the Patriots, 58-46, for the sectional title.
Woburn forced 22 Revere turnovers in a very physical game that, at times, was sloppy for both teams, and the Tanners never trailed.
Gattuso, a 5-foot-4 junior, weaved through No. 4 Revere’s defense and put up 28 points, including 13 free throws — eight of them in the fourth quarter.
The Patriots had trouble scoring throughout the game, and they were held to just six points in the opening quarter. Four points from Gattuso and a three from Andrea Schiavone late in the first gave Woburn a 13-6 lead after one.
Revere’s Ally Hinojosa hit her first field goal of the game, a 3-pointer, to open up the second and get the Patriots a little closer. But every time they’d close the gap, Woburn would go on a run to create some space.
“I think they’re just a mentally tough group, and they just kept digging in,” said Woburn coach Steve Sullivan. “All year long, they’ve just refused to lose.”
The Patriots got within three points at one point in the third, and refused to go away quietly. But the Tanners got timely 3-pointers from Schiavone and Kelsey Qualey to extend their lead.
Revere’s Pamela Gonzalez led the team with a double-double (12 points and 14 rebounds), hitting eight of 12 shots from the stripe. Maritza Scott put up 10 points and grabbed five rebounds, and Valentina Pepic was a presence in the paint, adding 10 points and eight rebounds. Meagan Gotham and Natasha Iacoviello each added five points.
“(The Tanners) were hitting their shots, and we were able to get to the rim, we just didn’t finish,” said Revere coach Diana Finn. “(I’m) 100 percent proud of how hard our kids played, I wish we could have gotten in there and grabbed some more rebounds to get us more possessions offensively. Absolutely a great season, winning three games into the tournament … absolutely so proud of how our team went 20-6 on the year.”
Revere is a relatively young team that returns seven of 11 players next year. But the Patriots lose some big pieces as well, with Scott, Iacoviello, Hinojosa and Adanna Hector graduating.
“I can’t downplay the impact that our seniors have, both in the way that they play and their leadership on and off the court,” said Finn. “We’re losing four seniors and they’re such big pieces of the puzzle in what we do around here, and they know what we stand for as a program. We’ll miss them, I just hope that our underclassmen have been paying attention to all that they’ve done, so they can step up in their roles.”