RallyNorth.net

Thu, Feb 28, 2008 07:00 PM @ Swampscott

Team	1	2	3	4	Final
Playoff Game Division 3 North - Quarter Finals
Wilmington	15	8	9	23	55
Swampscott	18	7	15	29	69

Swampscott shakes off doldrums, knocks off Wilmington

Thursday, February, 28 By Matt Jenkins
Staff writer

SWAMPSCOTT | Call it rust. Call it nerves. You can even call it playoff inexperience if you'd like.

But whatever it was, Tara Nimkar, Allie Beaulieu and the rest of the Swampscott girls basketball team shook it off in time to run away from Wilmington, 69-55, in a Division 3 North quarterfinal matchup.

The Big Blue (18-3) await the winner of tonight's Pentucket-Newburyport contest to play for the right to advance to the North final.

After earning the No. 3 seed and drawing a first round bye, Swampscott spent a week practicing for last night's contest.

It was the Big Blue's longest stretch without game action since the season started in December.

The layoff clearly had an affect on Swampscott in the first half. The Big Blue struggled to get offensive consistency, and there was something lacking on the defensive end as well.

"We hadn't scrimmaged since playing (Lowell last Wednesday)," Swampscott coach Jack Hughes said. "To be honest, the kids were like, 'Enough practice. Let's go play.' So, I do think there was some (rust)." Wilmington was definitely a worthy opponent, but Swampscott seemed to be playing down to the competition in the first half.

Nimkar and Beaulieu, the only two Swampscott players with significant tournament experience, carried the Big Blue through the first half. They each scored 10 points as Swampscott headed to the locker room with a two-point (25-23) advantage.

A better defensive approach helped Swampscott get things back under control in the second half.

"We were very nervous. We were just kind of running around," Hughes said. "All of the defenses we planned didn't work. We went back to playing a zone, which seemed to slow them down a bit."

As Swampscott's defense improved, so too did its offense Sophomore guard Kara Gilberg, who averaged 11 points per game in the regular season, shook off a tough opening half and started taking the ball to the hoop. She scored nine of her 12 points after intermission to help open things up further for Nimkar and Beaulieu.

Nimkar proved to be too much for Wilmington to handle, tearing things up under the basket and occasionally stepping out to hit jump shots. She finished with a game-high 24 points.

Beaulieu, meanwhile, worked from the outside in, and converted four free throws down the stretch to put the game away. She contributed 23 points to Swampscott's effort.

"They've been in a lot of big games," Hughes said of his junior duo. "This is nothing new to them. They've been doing it since they were freshmen."

Swampscott opened an eight-point lead (40-32) after three quarters and pushed it to 16 with an 8-0 run to start the fourth quarter.

A conventional 3-point play by Beaulieu with 3:12 to go gave Swampscott its biggest lead of the game at 59-39. Wilmington senior guard Stephanie Sauve kept things interesting by heating up in the fourth quarter. She connected on three of her four 3-pointers in the final eight minutes and led the Wildcats with 22 points.

Pentucket, which dealt Swampscott one of its three losses this year during a Christmas tournament, is the likely opponent in the semifinal. No matter who the opponent is, the Big Blue will look to get the ball to Nimkar and Beaulieu in good scoring position.

"When you've got a center like Nimkar, who can beat you inside and outside, it puts a lot of pressure on the defense," Hughes said. "We ran some different things that we didn't run at all in the first half, just so our kids could get back to basics."