Campbell makes sure St. Mary’s boys hoop stays focused

PEABODY ? This was one of those so-called trap games for the St. Mary’s boys basketball team, but Ronsanto Campbell and the Spartans didn’t fall into it.Campbell scored a team-high 17 points and grabbed 15 rebounds while Luis Rijo and Nick Gagliolo added 11 points each to lead St. Mary’s to a 62-51 win over Bishop Fenwick, Friday night, at Bishop Fenwick.Trevor Grace led all scorers with 18 points for Fenwick, but he was the only player for the Crusaders in double-figures.”This is a tough place to play,” St. Mary’s coach Kevin Moran said. “They (Crusaders) always play hard, especially here, and they have one of the best shooting teams we’ve faced.”The Spartans (11-7) could have allowed themselves a little bit of a letdown after clinching their third straight tournament berth in their last outing on Monday. St. Mary’s had to travel for a rivalry game against a Fenwick team (4-13) that was playing for pride on senior night, but the Spartans opened the game with an 8-0 run and never led by less than five points the rest of the way.”It was hard to come back after they got out to that early lead,” Fenwick coach Mike Kane said. “We really didn’t do a very good job of taking care of the ball early in the game, and they really beat us on the boards.”Of Campbell’s 15 rebounds, nine were on the offensive glass. The junior from Revere also took the ball hard to the rim, and converted a couple of nifty up-and-under moves in the first half.”Taking the ball baseline has been my thing as long as I can remember,” Campbell said. “They’re a very physical team, and I was just trying to go hard to the basket and draw some contact.”The Spartans also played some suffocating defense in the first quarter, allowing the Crusaders just one field goal to build a 17-4 lead. Grace heated up with a couple of 3-pointers in the second quarter, and then Alex Morsey hit three free throws after he was clobbered shooting behind the arc to cut Fenwick’s deficit to 28-22, with 1:22 left in the half.Gagliolo answered with a jumper from the left elbow and then converted a fast break bucket before two free throws by Grace made the score 32-24 at halftime.A 3-pointer by Grace from the left elbow with 4:27 left in the third quarter got the Crusaders to within five at 36-31, but St. Mary’s closed out the period with a 9-3 run to restore the lead to 11 points.Early in the fourth quarter, Rijo made a layup after a clever ball fake, and then canned a pair of 3-pointers from the top of the key within a 30-second span as the Spartans opened up a 54-38 lead. Paul Bedard converted a nice pass from Randolph Thurman and then glassed in a 7-footer from the middle of the lane to peak the Spartans’ lead at 60-39 with 3:50 to play. Fenwick closed out the game with a 12-2 run, but never really threatened to make it all the way back.”We’re really starting to come together as a team,” Campbell said. “We’re getting pretty good at keeping our eyes open and looking for each other on the floor. If we keep working hard and playing as a team, we’ll be all right (in the state tournament).”