PEABODY ? The only disappointing aspect of last night’s Swampscott/Peabody girls basketball game is knowing these two teams won’t play again this season.Tara Nimkar topped all scorers with 24 points to lead the Big Blue past the Tanners, 75-67, in a highly-entertaining battle between the two division leaders in the Northeastern Conference, Friday night, at Peabody High.Kara Gilberg added 18 points and Allie Beaulieu scored 17 for Swampscott (12-1), while Janelle Rodriguez led Peabody (10-2) with 16 points and Tawny Palmieri had 10.”It had the feeling of a tournament game,” Swampscott coach Jack Hughes said. “It’s the first time we’ve played them, and they’ve always had such a strong program and a great tradition. It’s a big win for our kids.”Under the NEC’s split division format now that Peabody has joined the conference, the teams in the large schools divison play the small schools only once a year. Since Swampscott (Div. 3) and Peabody (Div. 1) will play in different divisions in the state tournament, this was the only meeting of the season and it was highly-anticipated.The Tanners led by as many as six points in the first quarter, but the Big Blue went on an 11-0 run to close out the opening period and give Swampscott a lead it never relinquished.”They really had all the answers for us tonight,” Peabody coach Jane Heil said. “Everything they did just worked for them.”When Peabody started tall, Swampscott went to a full-court press that threw the Tanners out of their double low post offense with 6-footers Kristen Federico and Lindsey Consoles. Federico was limited to eight points, while Consoles, who spent the last nine minutes of the first half on the bench with two fouls, scored six points.”We didn’t want to play a half-court game with them,” Hughes said. “Even if it meant giving them a few easy baskets in transition, we were going to live and die with the press.”When the Tanners tried to match the Big Blue’s quickness with a smaller lineup, Swampscott went to Nimkar, who scored 10 straight points to open the fourth quarter and keep her team in the lead.”They were just better prepared for us than we were for them,” Heil said.Not that Peabody didn’t have its moments. After trailing by as many as 12 points early in the second half, the Tanners closed out the third period with a 9-0 run behind spunky reserve guard Alyssa Manoogian (9 points), who worked her way to a couple of second-chance hoops and finished off a 3-point play with a free throw. Michelle Grifoni put back another rebound with 4.3 second left in the third quarter to make the score 56-54 heading into the final period.Nimkar took over at that point, taking care of all the points in an 8-2 run that put Swampscott back in control of the game. The Tanners hung around and were still within four points (70-66) in the final minute, but Bealieau – a forward who had a sensational game playing the point – and Nimkar combined for make 5-of-8 free throws the rest of the way.”I’m proud of the way the team hung in there,” Heil said. “Even the kids who weren’t playing were incredibly supportive. But give Swampscott a lot of credit. They’ve been in a lot more of these big games than we have, and they know what to do.”Peabody took its largest lead of the game at 15-9 when Grifoni (9 points) finished off a feed from Palmieri with 1:52 left in the first quarter. Swampscott’s Gilberg then stepped up and made three open jumpers from the left wing, including a 3-pointer that gave the Big Blue a 25-18 lead with 6:17 remaining in the first half.Swampscott’s lead peaked at 13 points (39-26) when Nimkar canned a jumper from the foul line with 1:53 left in the second quarter.”We had four kids who played the entire game,” Hughes said. “They have so much respect for Peabody, so they knew there was a little more at stake than usual and they played hard.”