In a battle between undefeated rivals, Wednesday’s (Jan. 7) game was up for grabs heading into the final quarter with Bishop Fenwick clinging to a 32-31 lead against St. Mary’s.
But the Crusaders turned on the jets in the fourth quarter, outscoring St. Mary’s 23-15 en route to a 55-46 win.
Simply put, the Spartans had no answers for Fenwick’s dynamic duo of Ceila Neilson (22 points, 7 assists, 4 rebounds) and Caitlin Boyle (18 points, 4 rebounds), who put on a clinic in the fourth quarter, scoring 18 of the Crusaders’ 23 points to put the game out of reach and remain undefeated at 6-0.
The Spartans were led by freshman Kenna O’Connell (10 points), sophomore Charleigh Green (9), and senior Jillian Roberts (8).
“It was really about the girls playing together and communicating well,” said Fenwick coach Adam DeBaggis. “There was one point in the second quarter when we stopped playing defense when it was 17-10 and they got to 17-17. We said you have to fight until the horn blows and they did.”
“We did not play good basketball at all,” St. Mary’s coach Jeff Newhall said. “We just played four top-15 teams in a row, so not being ready for this situation is, you know, disappointing, but a lot of this is on me. We weren’t going to go 27-0, so you have to lose sometimes to learn. I’m still fine with where we’re at.”
St. Mary’s jumped out to an early 8-4 lead, but Fenwick closed out the first quarter with a 10-0 run to lead 14-8 heading into the second and led 22-19 at the half.
Defense ruled in the third, with both teams struggling to hang on to the ball. Fenwick led 25-24, then stretched the lead to 30-25 behind a 3-pointer and old-fashioned three from Neilson.
The Spartans fought back with buckets from O’Connell and freshman Sysy Emmanuel (6 points) to close to within 30-29. Boyle bumped the lead to 32-29 with a spinning layup, then Spartan freshman Janae Holmes converted a bucket off a steal to close out the quarter.
DeBaggis had high praise for several players, starting with Neilson and Boyle.
“There is no heart like Celia’s in the State of Massachusetts. And Caitlin, even if she’s not scoring, other people are because of her presence. They’ve been playing together a long time and really know each other’s game.”
DeBaggis also enjoyed the play of freshman Taisha Castillo (5 points), senior captain Brittney Figulski (4 points), and junior Reese Spurchise (5 rebounds).
“Taisha was great, especially for a freshman,” he said. “She started off with a little nerves, but she plays really composed. Reese is just playing so well at both ends of the floor; I love the way she is playing. And Brittney did some good things tonight, too.”
Newhall said if you had told him before the season the Spartans would be 7-1, he’d have taken it, but added there is much work to do.
“We go back to work tomorrow. We’ve been very good, so this was a little uncharacteristic, but give Fenwick credit. They did a nice job. They have two seniors (Boyle and Neilson) who are on their last go-around, so I’m sure they want to beat us.”
Newhall highlighted the play of Roberts, who scored all her points in the second half to help St. Mary’s stay within striking distance.
“Jill had her best game of the year,” Newhall said. “You could see her experience when things got a little bit dicey. She was attacking the hoop and making her shots in and around the hoop. She also did a nice job defensively, so I would single her out as playing pretty well tonight.”
