St. Mary's Uses Fast Start to Down Pittsfield in State Semi-Finals

WORCESTER, Mass. – The top-seeded St. Mary’s Spartans jumped out to an 18-2 lead and went on to a 59-43 win over Pittsfield in the Division 3 State Semi-Finals on Monday at Worcester State University.

 

Juliana Conte hit three first-quarter 3-pointers on the way to a 14-point night for St. Mary’s, which put the game out of reach for good by outscoring the Generals by 10 in the third quarter.

 

But it was the first quarter that set the tone as Pittsfield managed just a field goal from Kyana Summers (10 points, nine rebounds) while committing 13 turnovers.

 

“I think it was a mixture of competition and nerves,” Pittsfield coach Kristy Conyers said. “I’m not going to say it was just the competition. It was a mixture of nerves too, because once they got themselves together, we started to play better.

 

“But, obviously, once you get in a hole, it’s hard to dig out of a hole like that.”

 

Led by Division I collegiate prospect Bella Owumi (19 points, five rebounds), St. Mary’s played from ahead all night after Conte scored the game’s first points from behind the arc.

 

Summers’ basket made it a 5-2 game, but the Spartans scored the next 11, including a triple from Owumi, capping the quarter with a putback by Reese Matela to make it 16-2 heading to the second.

 

In that second quarter, Pittsfield (23-2) rallied to make a game of it.

 

After Charleigh Green’s triple gave St. Mary’s its biggest lead of the half at 18-2, Bre’Jai Ellerbee (11 points) answered with a 3 for PHS.

 

Madison Stetz (10 points, seven rebounds) then made a free throw and Harolyn Castillo put back one of her eight rebounds to get the margin down 10.

 

It again was 10 after Ellerbee hit another 3 and shortly thereafter a free throw to make it 27-17 with a couple of minutes left in the half.

 

But that was as close as Pittsfield got, settling for a 31-20 deficit going into the locker room.

 

The Spartans started the second half a bit like they started the game, outscoring Pittsfield, 10-1, in the opening moments of the third quarter.

 

Owumi’s free throw gave her team a 41-21 lead, and St. Mary’s ended up with a 21-point advantage going to the fourth.

 

Pittsfield made a dent in that margin over the last eight minutes but never got closer than 15 points on a Castillo putback to make it 54-39 with a few minutes remaining.

 

St. Mary’s moves on to this weekend’s championship game at Lowell’s Tsongas Center against No. 3 Norwell, a 55-47 winner over Foxborough in Monday’s other semi-final.

 

Pittsfield, meanwhile, graduates three seniors off a team that won its league and a Western Massachusetts Class B Championship and won 13 straight games going into Monday night.

 

“I’m proud of these girls,” Conyers said. “To make it to the Final Four, we only lost two games all season and to lose to the No. 1 seed, a legit No. 1 seed with height and speed.

 

“They accomplished their goals. They wanted to win Western Mass. They did that. They wanted to go as far in the state tournament as we could and to get to the Final Four. … It’s sad, you know. For the seniors, it’s even sadder. For the whole team, it’s sad. But making it this far and losing to a good basketball team – you’ve got to give credit where credit’s due.

 

“But we came out fighting hard once we got the nerves out.”