PHOTO: Bob Roche
St. John’s Prep’s Spencer Danforth, left, drives to the basket against Lynn English’s Abraham Diaz on Friday night.
By MIKE ALONGI
LYNN — The St. John’s Prep boys’ basketball team never trailed in the game as they defeated the Lynn English Bulldogs, 66-44, at the Paul Cavanagh Gymnasium on Friday night.
Spencer Danforth led the way for the Eagles (13-6) with 19 points and four rebounds. Tommy O’Neill had 11 points and three rebounds, Alec Buresh had 10 points and Justin Connolly just missed a double-double with eight points and 10 rebounds. Harry O’Neill contributed seven points and eight rebounds.
“We were sloppy out there at times, but in the end we got the result we wanted,” said St. John’s coach John Dullea. “We got the stops we needed to, but we certainly have plenty of things to work on.”
For English (11-7), Iverson Lopes was the leading scorer with nine points and three rebounds. Abraham Diaz, who sat out the first half after missing practice, finished the game with seven points and two rebounds. Brett Holey had six points and five rebounds, while Christian Herbert and Kelvin Deleon each scored five points.
“We were a little shorthanded today, but they guys played hard,” said English coach Mike Carr. “We’ve got a lot of young kids coming up now, so we’re just going to try to finish the year strong.”
St. John’s took the lead right from the start and never relinquished it. The Eagles took an 11-4 lead in the first few minutes before English recovered to pull within three points. However, St. John’s hit a couple shots late to end the first quarter with a 20-11 lead.
The Eagles’ strong play continued into the second quarter, when St. John’s stretched the lead out to 17 points. Danforth caught fire from long range and finished the first half with 11 points. At halftime, the lead remained at 17 points, 37-20.
The Eagles stretched the lead even further in the third quarter, getting the lead to 21 points.
English made its best run in the fourth quarter. Behind some big shots from Lopes, Herbert and Diaz, the Bulldogs cut the deficit to 11 points.
But as soon as English got that close, the Eagles turned up the heat once again and reestablished a comfortable lead.
“It seemed like whenever we got up by a lot, we would relax and let them go on a run,” said Dullea. “Then we’d recover and go on a run. When we get a big lead like that, we want to be able to extend it, not let the team back in the game.”
The Eagles were able to run out the clock to walk home with the 22-point win.
“I’d like to play better defensively, and it just hasn’t happened for us this year,” said Carr. “We’ve always been able to score in transition off our defense, but we haven’t gotten it done so far. Hopefully we can get back on the right track against Beverly.”
“Going into the tournament, we just have to stay focused,” said Dullea. “We have to have the mental part of the game taken care of as well as the physical part. After our next game, it’s all one-and-done. So we’ll have to buckle down.”
Mike Alongi can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @m_alongi.
