Blue Girls Basketball Rocks Stoneham

Big Blue girls basketball dropped Stoneham 67-42 on the Swampscott hardwood Saturday in the North Div. 3 quarterfinals.

The win advances the Swampscott squad to the semifinals, Thursday, when they will play the winner of tomorrow's match-up between Pentucket and Newburyport.

On Saturday in the Swampscott field house, Niki Laskaris, 27 points, Ara Talkov, 17 points, and Caroline Murphy, 13 points, led the Big Blue attack.

Smiles broke out on the Swampscott girls' faces as their lead grew in the fourth quarter. 

Laskaris was relentless going to the hoop and, when fouled in the act of shooting, drained most of her free throws.

She said after the game that the team got going in the second half when junior Ara Talkov's shots started falling.

Laskaris also said the team prides itself on playing good defense, so they were unhappy that Stoneham scored 23 points in the first half.

The second half was a different story.

Big Blue held Stoneham to six points in the third quarter and, at the same time, the home team got on track offensively.

The fourth quarter opened with Stoneham scoring the first bucket, and cutting Swampscott's lead to seven points, 38-31.

But after that Swampscott pushed the lead to 12 points in the next two minutes before doubling the margin as the quarter ticked away.

Blue ended the game fully in synch.

But that is not how they started the evening.

In their first few possessions they turned the ball over and Stoneham scored five unanswered points.

Jack Hughes said after the game that the girls really wanted to play well and were perhaps too excited.

The team arrived way early, getting to the gym at 4:30 in the afternoon, two-and-a-half hours before the 7 pm jump ball.

Big Blue fell behind early in the first quarter but soon tied the game.

Still, the entire first half was a see-saw affair and for much of the third quarter Stoneham refused to go quietly.

In the first half the Big Blue girls grabbed lots of rebounds on the defensive end and got their break started but Stoneham's press broke Blue's rhythm.

Strong inside play from Caroline Murphy and Laskaris's intensity on offense and defense sent a message to Stoneham early in the game.

The message was that they were going to be playing hard regardless of how things went.

The Blue kept up the attack even as they pulled away.