SALEM – Over an hour before the tip time for St. John’s and Lynn English’s meeting in the Division 1 North semifinals at Veterans Memorial Field House, the stands were already filling with fans who were buzzing about what was ahead.By tip time, there were over 3,000 fans filling every nook and cranny of the arena. And the fans who flocked to Salem enjoyed quite a show.In one of the best basketball games on the North Shore in recent memory, the Eagles knocked English off its perch as North champion, rallying from seven down entering the fourth quarter to take a 79-78 win and earn the program’s first sectional final berth since 1974.Click here for a photo gallery.The Eagles’ reward for getting to the Garden? A rematch with top-seeded Central Catholic, who beat the Eagles by four in a standout game late in the regular season.”English is just such a talented team, the most talented team we’ve seen all season,” St. John’s coach Sean Connolly said. “We knew that we weren’t going to be able to run them out of the game but we got the big stops when we needed them in the fourth quarter.”Playing without point guard Ryan Woumn, who was out due to suspension, the Bulldogs (21-2) led 57-50 heading to the final quarter but saw the Prep (21-2) storm back with 29 points in the final eight minutes. Down by three with the ball in the final seconds, English couldn’t get off a shot thanks to the Prep defense.After the game, English interim coach Mike Carr Jr. (who stepped in for Buzzy Barton, who was suspended as a result of the school’s recruiting violations) knew that Woumn’s absence probably hurt his team in crunch time.”Not having Ryan out there at the end was probably big,” Carr said. “We kind of got a little helter-skelter there on that last possession and not having that guy out there on the point that we know can take the shot was huge.”The Prep began to chip away at the English lead to begin the fourth quarter as Pat Connaughton and Steve Haladyna, who were pests all night for the Eagles, scored back-to-back baskets to cut the lead to three.Keandre Stanton (15 points) momentarily stopped the momentum before Connaughton (18 points) and Haladyna (game-high 26) cut the lead to one. Mike Carbone then sent the Prep faithful into a frenzy when he canned the first of three critical long-range bombs in the fourth to make it 61-59, Eagles.”I said to Mike in the fourth quarter to just shoot the ball,” Connaughton said. “Because he was thinking too much and when he just shoots, it usually goes in.”The two powers continued to trade salvos before Carbone swished his second trey of the fourth to give the Prep a five-point lead with just under five minutes left. After English cut the lead back to three, Carbone seemed to put a dagger in the Bulldogs hopes when he hit another deep three off a scramble to make it 73-67 with 3:49 to go.The Prep eventually extended the lead to eight with 2:02 left before English made one last charge.Jarell Byrd (team-high 24 points) scored five of the next six points as the Bulldogs cut the lead to two with 30 seconds left. Forced to foul Tripp Doherty, English watched as he made one of two shots to make it 77-74 with 24.5 ticks left.The Prep defense then showed its muscle. English kept looking for a drive to the basket but couldn’t get through the lane and eventually was forced into a Jordan Rogers three that was well short.Carbone got the rebound and was fouled with 5.4 seconds left. He hit both free throws to make it 79-74 and effectively end the game. After Paradise Hogan made 1-of-3 free throws, Josh Castillo would hit a three off Hogan’s last missed free throw as time expired to account for the final points.”We had some breakdowns defensively,” Carr said. “We did a good job for the most part on Pat, but the rest of their guys hit some big shots.”The Eagles actually were in control for most of the first half, leading by 14 points on three separate occasions. English, though, fought back gamely by closing the first hal