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We may only be in the first quarter of the season still, but there seems to be no doubt about which area team features the best duo.

Swampscott is off to a 5-0 start and junior forwards Tara Nimkar and Allie Beaulieu are playing better than any other North Shore tandem.

Caroline Stewart knew she would score her 1,000th career point this season. She just didn't want to know when it was coming.

Masconomet's senior forward was blindsided by the milestone last week when she converted a free throw in the second half of a victory over Hamilton-Wenham. Stewart was so focused on her opponent that she became confused when the game was stopped for a brief ceremony.

The Gloucester girls basketball team will have the chance to close out 2007 as champions.

They earned that opportunity by defeating Marian High School, 49-30, in the Mustang Classic girls basketball holiday tournament in Framingham. The Fishermen will play Dover-Sherborn in the tourney championship game today (4:15 p.m.).

Old rivals Peabody and Bishop Fenwick will meet today in the Tanner City Holiday Tournament, but not in the finals as both teams had hoped. Instead, they will battle in the consolation game at 3:30.

Peabody suffered its first loss of the season at the hands of last year's New Hampshire state champion Winnacunnet Regional, 56-42, while Fenwick lost by three points to Melrose.

The Bishop Fenwick girls basketball team all had that solemn look as they exited the locker room. Even their best game of the young season and a 63-61 lead with 56 seconds remaining against their third top 15 ranked opponent couldn't put the Lady Crusaders out of their misery in the Tanner City Holiday Tournament last night.

HAVERHILL | Pentucket's girls accomplished their immediate mission in the opening day of the Haverhill Coca-Cola Tournament, but that was one of the only positives cited by head coach John McNamara.

After the unbeaten Sachems (5-0) scrapped past Timberlane, 41-34, McNamara was hardly satisfied.

The score will be forgotten before the Masconomet girls basketball team plays another game. But Bob Romeo anticipates the lesson will stick around well into March.

Forced to play most of the second half and all of overtime without stars Caroline Stewart and Jamie White, the Chieftains gave Division 3 power Cardinal Spellman all it could handle in a 56-52 loss at home.

Pinkerton coach John Barry managed a smile while opening a package of Christmas cookies.

"I don't have much to tell you," he said.

His Astros had no trouble with Lawrence, cruising to a 59-20 victory. The tenacious club stifled the Lancers and scored at will by continuously cutting to the hoop for layups.

Salem gave undefeated Lowell its best shot in the Greater Lawrence Christmas Tournament | but for only a little more than a quarter in a 60-43 Red Raiders win.

The Blue Devils, behind senior guard Danielle Stoodley (team-high 15 points) and junior forward Amanda Saab (14 points, 16 rebounds) led 8-7 after a drive down the lane for a basket by sophomore forward Olivia Connors. That came just moments after talented Lowell center Whitney Wilson went down with an ankle injury and left the game for good.

Andover may be hurting, but it didn't seem to matter.

With Bentley College-bound senior guard Meghan Thomann sidelined with a quad injury, the Golden Warriors still rolled past North Andover 69-54.