LYNN — After returning to the court for the first time in more than two weeks, the St. Mary’s girls basketball team came out strong and earned a 58-43 win over Catholic Central League foe Arlington Catholic Wednesday evening at Tony Conigliaro Gymnasium.
“We made some mistakes early on, which was to be expected after such a long layoff,” said St. Mary’s coach Jeff Newhall. “Our effort was really good the whole game, and at the end of the day that’s what we were looking for after a two-week break. There are definitely some things we need to work on, but it was good to be back.”
Yirsy Queliz led the way for St. Mary’s with 13 points, while Nicolette D’Itria scored 12 points and Maiya Bergdorf notched a big double-double with 11 points and 14 rebounds. Kellyn Preira added 10 points in the win.
“We’ve had really good balance in our scoring over our first two games, and that’s good to see,” said Newhall. “That’s what you need out there when you’re getting heavy legs like we were tonight. Having a number of players who can step up and handle the burden is a great thing for us.”
St. Mary’s started a little slow in the opening minutes, but the Spartans quickly shook off the rust and started to knock down some shots. By the end of the first quarter, St. Mary’s held a 16-5 lead.
Arlington Catholic went on a run and started to fight back in the second quarter, eventually cutting the deficit to as few as five points. But St. Mary’s recovered before the half with a run of its own, and the Spartans took a 30-21 lead into the halftime break.
In the third quarter, St. Mary’s started to pull away. Behind strong defense on one end and consistent shot-making on the other, the Spartans pushed their lead to as many as 15 points midway through the quarter. By the end of the third, St. Mary’s led 46-30.
The Spartans continued their strong play into the fourth quarter as they cruised to a victory.
St. Mary’s (2-0) is right back in action Thursday evening (5) with a road game against the same Arlington Catholic team.
“We haven’t given Arlington Catholic any reason to think they can’t beat us, and we’re going to need to be better if we want to pull out a win,” said Newhall. “It’s good that we got out on the floor again and knocked off the rust, but now we’ve got to start playing a little better.”