LYNN — There was plenty of hardware on the line Monday at the Tony Conigliaro Gymnasium as the Division 1 and 2 girls brackets of the 20th rendition of the Spartan Classic came to a close.

And has happened many times over the previous 19 playings, the host team took home the big hardware.

Putting forth one of its best defensive efforts of the season, St. Mary’s held a talented Whitman-Hanson team to just 24 points as the top ranked team in Division 3 capped a 20-3 regular season with a commanding 47-24 win.

“To hold a team like that to 24 points is a great effort all-around on defense,” St. Mary’s coach Jeff Newhall said. “We were able to pressure them from baseline to baseline and that wears you down after a while.”

The dominant defensive effort didn’t pay dividends right away as the Panthers (14-7) hung with St. Mary’s for most of the first half, trailing by only four as the first half was winding down.

It was eighth grader Janae Holmes who provided the spark that St. Mary’s needed offensively as her three in the final moments of the half made it a 23-16 game.

That momentum carried over into the third quarter as five quick points from Bella Owumi, who played much of the way with three fouls, and a Reese Matela layup made it a 14 point game in a flash.

From there, Whitman-Hanson could get no closer than 30-20 as the Panthers netted only one field goal in the second half.

The lead reached 14 at the end of the third quarter before the Spartans added the first 10 points of the fourth quarter to insure the comfortable victory.

“We did a great job with our on and off the ball defense,” Newhall said.

In the preceding Division 2 final, Dartmouth showed its explosive ability at both ends of the court. Sparked by a dominant second half defensively and 25 points at the offensive end from its star, Kat Cheesebro, the Indians pulled away from Pentucket in the final 12 minutes to a 68-43 win.

“One of the things we’ve gotten better at this year is we have so much more balance,” Dartmouth coach Brian Jalbert said.

That balance was more than evident as the Indians (18-2) knocked down 10 three pointers, four each coming from Remy Barber and Olivia Faria as they finished with 14 points apiece.

Defensively, Cheesebro asked for the assignment of trying to shut down Pentucket ace Amelia Crowe and she did exactly that. After scoring 32 points in the semifinals, Crowe managed only two field goals and six points on Monday.

“Kat wanted that assignment and she did a great job on her,” Jalbert said.

Dartmouth never trailed as it used a 17-4 run in the first half to open up a 27-10 lead. Pentucket (16-5) closed the half on a 12-4 spurt to cut the gap to nine. The Panthers got the lead down to 33-28 midway through the third quarter before Dartmouth put the hammer down.

A 12-4 run opened up a 45-32 lead and the Indians kept pouring it on. By the time Cheesbro hit her team’s final three of the night, the run had reached 31-10 and gave Dartmouth a 26 point lead.