Winthrop Falls to St. Mary’s in Spartan Classic Final

The Winthrop High girls basketball team learned once again that all roads to the Boston Garden will  have to pass through St. Mary’s of Lynn.

Winthrop, champion of the Northeastern Conference South Division, met St. Mary’s in the Spartan Classic final Tuesday night, with the hosts prevailing 42-40.

Tournament MVP Marnelle Garraud (14 points) hit two clutch free throws with 21 seconds left to give St. Mary’s a 42-38 lead. Kristen Siscamanis answered with a basket and Winthrop was in a position to either tie or win the game on an inbounds play with 2.4 seconds remaining, but St. Mary’s defense prevented Winthrop from a last shot.

St. Mary’s and Winthrop are considered the top teams in the Division 3 North Sectionals. Last year St. Mary’s defeated Winthrop, 47-45, in the North final on its way to beating Archbishop Williams in the Garden and Hoosac Valley in the state final at the DCU Center.

Winthrop coach Ignacio Oyola is getting used to exciting, well-played games against St. Mary’s with major titles on the line.

“It was a good game – they went on a run and we went on a run,” said Oyola. “They were smart. Their coach [Jeff Newhall] did a great job. They took away a lot of our strengths. They doubled Niki [Tsiotis] and Nina [Bartlette] a lot and Kristen [Siscamanis]. He tried to force our stop scorers to put the ball in the basket and they did a great job defensively.”

Indeed Newhall and his staff were never better than on the final sequence of the game when they chose to closely watch Niki Tsiotos, Winthrop’s quickest player and best ballhandler. The strategy paid dividends as Winthrop was unable to get a shot off.

Oyola is hoping for another opportunity to play St. Mary’s in the State Tournament.

“I definitely think we can compete with them,” said Oyola. “We’ll try to make adjustments and I’m sure they will. It would be nice to have another game in the North final at the Tsongas but we have to be able to win the next one.

We haven’t been able to beat them over the past couple of seasons.”

St. Mary’s junior Gianna Moschella hit three 3-pointers in the first half and finished with 12 points. Moschella and Winthrop Kristen Siscamanis [20 points) were named to the All-Tournament Team.

Kayla Carter, a defensive standout in the game, added nine points for St. Mary’s. Freshman Olibia Nazaire had six points.

Bartlette, Winthrop’s 6-foot-1-inch center, who has received correspondence from Division 1 schools including Sacred Heart and Fairleigh Dicksinson, scored nine points. Niki Tsiotos, arguably the state’s top defensive backcourtwoman, had six points