LYNN — Andover freshman Lexi Linsey missed a lot of the primary half of this season with a damaged bone in her hand. On Tuesday on the Tony Conigliaro Memorial Gymnasium, she stepped squarely into the highlight.
Linsey scored 10 of her 17 factors within the fourth quarter because the Golden Warriors upended St. Mary’s, 52-41, to win the highest ladies division of the Spartan Traditional.
“She simply took over and made some large photographs,” Andover coach Alan Hibino stated.
It wasn’t simply Linsey’s taking pictures that bought Andover (19-1) over the end line on Monday, because the Golden Warriors’ protection fully stymied the Spartans (18-3) within the second half.
St. Mary’s managed solely two area targets over the ultimate 17-plus minutes of the sport, which noticed its 11-point lead steadily diminish.
“A number of credit score has to go to my workers. We spent a lot of the 10 minutes at halftime making modifications to deal with their press, and the youngsters went out and executed it,” Hibino stated.
It was a back-and-forth affair within the first quarter earlier than the Spartans put collectively a 12-0 run left by Charleigh Inexperienced to open up a 22-11 lead. It was nonetheless an 11-point sport as the primary half wound down when Linsey buried a triple from the left wing. Kallie Martin then made her first basket of the day, an enormous one when she canned a 35-footer as time expired to chop the result in 26-21.
Martin got here up with one other vital three early within the third quarter to start out a 10-0 run that Savannah Ross capped with a 3 to present Andover a 31-28 lead and finally a 34-32 lead after three.
Sky Watson gave St. Mary’s again the lead with a trey to start the fourth because the groups settled right into a seesaw affair till Linsey took over.
Her layup gave the Golden Warriors a 40-38 lead. She then scored 5 factors in just a little beneath 30 seconds to make it a 45-39 sport as Andover closed on a 12-3 run.
