MARBLEHEAD — Points were hard to come by at the Marblehead gym Friday. There were only 58, combined, scored by the Marblehead and Saugus girls basketball teams.
Thirty of them came from the Sachems, who evened their record at 4-4 with a 30-28 win.
“We always have at least one game every year like this against them,” said Saugus coach Mark Schruender. “Paul Moran (Marblehead coach) does a good job.”
Moran used to coach boys basketball at Saugus, and was among those who interviewed Schruender for the position. The two know each other well.
“I’m proud of him,” said Moran. “Those kids played a really good game. They were able to make that one extra play than us.”
The game was a defensive tong war. Both teams employed their own styles. Marblehead packed a tight zone defense around the perimeter, forcing Saugus to take mostly outside shots. The points came in brief spurts.
The Sachems, on the other hand, played fierce man-to-man until the fourth quarter when, plagued by foul trouble, they switched to a zone “to prevent us from fouling,” said Schruender.
After a 17-17 first half, the Sachems came out hotter in the third quarter. A 3-pointer by eighth-grader Peyton DiBiasio (six points and a steady hand bringing the ball up), plus another one by Ella Castle (team-high 8 points) gave Saugus a 23-17 lead. Those would be the last points Saugus would score for the period, while the Magicians could muster up only two for the entire eight minutes (free throws by Molly Cronin, who had five points for the game; and Stella Monaco).
The fourth quarter proved a bit more interesting. When Fallon Millerick hit buckets with 6:21 and 2:47 left (the only two baskets of the period to that point), Saugus looked pretty safe at 27-19.
But not so fast. Kramer (game-high 10 points) came back with a three-pointer and Annika Haley followed with another bucket, and before anyone knew what had happened, it was a three-point game (27-24).
Jessica Bremberg looked as if she salted it away for Saugus, though, with 1:01 left with a trey that made it 30-24, but Magician Cat Candelaria hit a conventional 3-pointer with 34 seconds left and it was sweaty-palm time again. With 17 seconds left, Kramer hit the second of two free throws for Marblehead and the deficit was down to two.
Saugus couldn’t convert, on its next possession, but Marblehead simply ran out of time.
Marblehead (7-5) has a full week off before hosting Swampscott next Friday (7).
Saugus (4-4) hosts Lynn Classical Monday (7).