FILE PHOTO
Fenwick’s Sam Mancinelli scored 16 points in the win.
By STEVE KRAUSE
SAUGUS — It was Bishop Fenwick’s pedigree against Saugus’ inexperience Thursday night at the Sachem gym. Pedigree may have won, but not without inexperience putting a good scare into it.
Fenwick, the defending Division 3 girls basketball state champion, struggled to keep the pesky Sachems from hanging around, and the Crusaders could never quite get rid of them until the late stages of the game, when players such as Sam Mancinelli (16 points) and Jaxson Nadeau (15) took over and finally vanquished a very courageous Saugus, 46-33.
The win puts the Crusaders in the Division 3 North semifinal against Manchester-Essex, but the date and time has not been released.
“I respect that program a lot,” said Fenwick coach Adam DeBaggis. “That’s a good team over there.”
Despite the loss, Saugus Mark Schruender couldn’t have been happier for his kids.
“This is the first time in something like three decades that they’ve been in the tournament,” he said. “Everybody can walk out of here with their heads held high.”
Most remarkable, from Schruender’s point of view, is that Fenwick, which only led 19-10 at the half, went on an 11-3 spurt to start the third quarter to lead 30-13. That was the high-water mark, as far as Fenwick’s lead went. Saugus took over from there, and actually had the deficit shaved to seven points (33-26) with over half the fourth quarter to play. The way things were going, it looked like Fenwick might be in for a rough ride the rest of the way.
“I was thinking ‘oh, no, not again,” DeBaggis said. “We’ve been in that situation a lot.”
However, that’s when Mancinelli stepped up.
“Sam Mancinelli’s been in something like 10 or 11 tournament games,” said DeBaggis. “She always seems to come through and she did again tonight.”
Mancinelli, the lone captain on the team, drilled a 3-pointer from just to the left of the arc’s center to put the lead back up to 10 with 4:27 to go.
“At that point, we had to compose ourselves,” said Mancinelli. “We were getting flustered. It was a loud gym (which was filled to capacity and then some) and it was very easy to get rattled.
“We knew Saugus was inexperienced and we knew we had to keep pressuring them,” said Mancinelli.
Saugus tried to come back a couple of times after Mancinelli sunk that three, but it was to no avail, and Mancinelli hit four free throws in the last minute to keep the Sachems at bay.
“We had a saying all year ‘maximum effort daily,’” Schruender said. “We got maximum effort tonight.”
Alessia Salzillo, Molly Granara and Olivia Valente each scored seven points for Saugus.
Both coaches acknowledged that his team’s shooting was off.
“I think we were nervous,” said Schruender. “That may have affected the shooting, but not the defense. I thought our defense was very good. They only got 19 points in the first half.”
“We had to play down their end in the first half, and their fans were pretty loud,” said DeBaggis. “I think that got to us a little.”
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Both teams’ fans had their own theme nights. For Saugus, it was a day at the beach, with Sachem fans showing up to the game in the most outrageous beach gear they could find. Fenwick’s fans turned the game into a pajama party, with fans showing up looking as they just woke up.