LYNN — A strong all-around effort from the St. Mary’s girls basketball team was too much for Tech, as the Spartans cruised to a 87-14 win in the first round of the Walter J. Boverini Tournament Thursday at Tech’s Field House.
“We are concerned with getting better at what we are doing,” Spartans coach Jeff Newhall said. “Unfortunately there was a huge talent gap here but I think we played the game correctly. We got a lot of kids some action and scored some points to get some confidence going.
“It’s a tough spot to be in for both sides,” Newhall added. “I thought our kids handled it pretty well and now we are onto the championship game and that’s what we look forward to.”
St. Mary’s was led by several great performances from Spartans including Ellie Riordan (14 points), Gabby Torres (12 points) and Olivia Matela (10 points).
Despite the loss senior Michayla Lawrence had nine points for the Tigers.
“It was good to be here,” Tech coach Kaitlyn Wechsler said. “We knew that they were a good team, we are just happy to be back in this tournament regardless of the score and we will work on that. It’s nice to be able to play here on our home court. Regardless of the outcome this team deserve to be in a Lynn tournament.
“The girls have worked hard,” Wechsler added. “I just didn’t think that our effort was 100 percent there the whole time. Overall we could have worked a little bit harder today and going forward I would just like to see more of that on Saturday.”
The Tigers had trouble right out of the gate getting anything started on offense before the Spartans went ahead 30-2 midway through the first half. From there it was more of the same through the end of the game, with St. Mary’s cycling in some younger players.
“I thought towards the end of the game the younger kids kind of did what they were suppose to and we ran a delay,” Newhall said. “For our younger kids to go into a game and to run that against anybody is a good thing.”
St. Mary’s (5-2) will play Classical in the championship game Saturday (4) while the Tigers (1-5) play English in a consolation (12). The Spartans will aim for their fifth consecutive Boverini crown.
“We got off to a tough start this season,” Newhall said. “We played better in Florida and we just want to keep going. It’s a Lynn tournament and we have won four in a row and I think eight out of ten so you know everyone is gunning for you. You have to bring your best shot each game.”