Spartan's Bramante Stall Belmont Girls' Playoff Hopes

When Girls’ Basketball head coach Melissa Hart heard that Stoneham’s Vanessa Bramante was indeed a senior, Hart let out a sigh and said, “That’s good.”

Hart’s response is probably echoed by many coaches in the Middlesex League as the Spartan’s senior center and co-captain made Friday night’s, Feb. 11 game at Belmont’s Wenner Field House her own hoops clinic as she scored a game high 21 points, had double digits in assists and grabbed two handfuls of rebounds to lead the Spartans (16-2, 14-2) over the Marauders, 57-46.

Belmont (8-8, 8-8) remains a single victory from the playoffs with two games remaining in the regular season. They finish the season against Lexington (Tuesday) and Watertown (Friday), teams they defeated in the regular season.

“We have two big games against Woburn and Reading (who handed the Spartans their two defeats this season) but this (game) definitely was a tough test for us as we gear up for the playoffs,” said Stoneham Head Coach Angela Billings.

“We knew we had an advantage inside so we went to Vanessa or Jen (Geraghty who had 15 points),” said Billings. “We didn’t do a good job in the first half as we turned the ball over 12 times. But we settled down and got much more productive in the paint.”

But in the early going, it was host Belmont pushing the ball and scoring, erasing an early 13-8 deficit with an 11-3 run and a 19-16 lead midway through the second quarter led by substitute sophomore center Kate Zolner (in a breakout game with a team leading 15 points, 10 in the second half) and Olivia Lyons (14 points).

But Bramante became a reliable scorer in the post and on defense and Stoneham went on a 10-2 run to end the half up 26-21.

After taking a quick lead, Belmont began missing a slew of close in shots and Stoneham was using its speed to punish the Marauders for their errors to push the lead to 36-26 with four minutes left in the third.

And while Zolner, Lyons and sophomore sub guard Amari Bradshaw cut the lead to four (36-32), Bramante answered with two cutting through the lane to push Stoneham’s lead back up to 38-34 at the start of the fourth quarter.

And while a hoop by sophomore Katie Leinbach (6 points) cut the lead to 44-40, Bramante, her sister, Stephanie, and senior guard Alison Brennan began hitting shot after shot at a rate Belmont could not match.

“That was a tough team for us and we needed everyone to play their best and we did for the first two-and-a-half quarters,” said Belmont’s Hill.

“This was just one of those learning things. We have to step it up when playing against a very good player like Vanessa.”

Belmont Boys’ on the right end of a blowout

In a tough season that has seen Belmont, last year’s Middlesex Champions, struggle for every win, the result of last Friday’s game against Stoneham was an anomaly: The Marauders (2-12,  took the Spartans to task, winning going away, 70-44.

“It was nice for the guys to get a win where we played for the entire game,” said Belmont head coach Adam Prichard.

“We have played a lot of good quarters but not four quarters,” said Prichard, now in this 11^th and one of the more difficult one.

Stoneham kept the game close raining threes, hitting six in the first half with senior guard John Gill (9 points) knocking down half of them and sophomore point guard Eric Mooney (12 points) hitting one with 1.1 seconds left in the first to give Stoneham their final lead of the night, 16-15.

Belmont would regain the lead through their big men, senior captain and center Luka Ladan (23 points) began dominating the boards on both offense and defense while substitute Angel Tejada (8 points) clogged the lane and blocking out defenders.

While Mooney and junior guard Brad Fagan (7 points) tried to stem the tide, Belmont had too many opportunities in the paint and that opened outside shots for junior Sam Musler (14 points) and inside jumpers for captain and junior forward John Dillon (11 points).