Sports Roundup: Lady Sachems Clinch Playoff Berth

The Winchester girl’s basketball team have had quite the up-and-down year. After starting the season with four losses, the Sachems won six in a row. Then came another four-game losing streak, but Winchester has come back up again with three straight wins, including victories this past week against Wakefield, Melrose and Watertown.

Here are the details from the week in Winchester sports:

Girls basketball: The Sachems (9-8) held Wakefield to 11 points in the first half this past weekend and Shelby Santini scored a team-high 12 points in Winchester's 47-35 win.

Santini continued her strong play on Tuesday with 16 points against Melrose, while fellow senior captain Samantha Mangano — who committed to play at the University of New Haven — scored 17 points as the Sachems won 55-39.

“I’m very fortunate to have two players of the caliber and character of Shelby and Sam,” Winchester coach Jason Cacciapuoti said. “They’re intelligent basketball players, they understand how to play the game...if we run a set and a team takes us out of it, they both know how to make an adjustment on the fly and still get us something out of it.”

Winchester was actually down by six points at halftime against Melrose, but the Sachems came out of the break with a 23-point third quarter and held the Lady Raiders to just 13 points total in the second half.

The Sachems clinched a playoff berth beating Watertown on Friday.

Boys basketball: The Sachems (9-8) split their league games this week, beating Wakefield 60-58 in overtime and then losing to Melrose 52-37.

Winchester junior center Peter Miller was the difference against Wakefield, scoring a game-high 24 points on Saturday night. But Melrose turned the tables on Tuesday — Miller was held to 12 points and 6-foot-9 Melrose center Andrew Scocca scored 22.

The 37 points from Winchester was a season-worst by far — the previous low was 47 points in a loss to Watertown last month.

“We got the shots, we got the looks against their defense,” Winchester head coach Quinton Dale said after the Melrose game. “We couldn’t convert them tonight, and (Melrose) fed off of it. We lost confidence, they gained confidence. I think that was the difference in the ball game.”

Two 3-pointers in the third quarter from senior captain Caleb Unni brought Winchester within 38-34 at Melrose after three quarters, and it was still a four-point game with five minutes left before the Red Raiders ended the game on a 12-1 run.

Boys hockey: The boys hockey team improved to 9-3-1 with a 4-1 win over Belmont. Nick Ducharme scored twice and Colin Edwards had a goal and an assist in the third period. It was the eighth straight time the Sachems defeated Belmont.

Girls hockey: The Sachems (8-6-2) had two non-league wins this past week. Michaela Chiuccariello recorded all three goals in a 3-1 win over Austin Prep, and followed that up with two goals and an assist as the Sachems beat Marblehead 3-0.