Lynn English Girls Defeat Swampscott
Posted on February 2nd 2012
by Jan Taylor
The Lynn English girls’ basketball team inched one step closer to winning the Northeast Conference title by beating the Swampscott Big Blue, 40-34, at Lynn English High School on Tuesday night.
The Bulldogs, who are in first place in the conference, and the Big Blue, who are in second place, have already clinched spots in the state tournament. Both teams knew going in to the game that they were up for a challenge. The Big Blue started the scoring in the first quarter when Merry Ball made the first basket. Swampscott’s Niki Laskaris scored four of her 13 points in the first quarter to give the Big Blue a 6-4 after the first quarter.
The Bulldogs’ powerful offense got going in the second quarter as Katherine Simpson hit a 3-pointer to begin the quarter to help the Bulldogs take their first lead. The Big Blue then regained the lead as Laskaris hit two free throws. However, the Bulldogs dominated for the remainder of the quarter and regained the lead for good when they scored another three pointer. They took an 18-12 at halftime.
Lynn English continued to dominate on both sides of the ball in the third quarter. After Swampscott scored two points to start the second half the Bulldogs scored four straight to increase their lead to eight points. They led 27-20 after three quarters.
The Bulldogs picked up where they left off to open the final quarter. They were ahead by as much as 14 points to put the game out of reach for the Big Blue. Swampscott refused to give up, however. After being down by 14 midway through the fourth quarter, Swampscott scored nine straight points, including six from the free throw line, to cut the deficit to five points. Ara Talkov scored eight of her 14 points in the fourth quarter to help her team keep pace with Lynn English.
“This was one of our biggest wins of the season, since Swampscott is right behind us in the standings,” said Lynn English senior captain Taylor Newhall (five points). “We looked forward to this game for awhile and we practiced hard to make sure we were prepared.”
