St. Mary’s boys assert themselves over Fenwick

LYNN ? It took nearly three quarters, but the St. Mary’s High boys basketball team finally asserted its dominance over Bishop Fenwick with a 73-57 win over Bishop Fenwick, in an intense game, Friday night, at Conigliaro Gym.Trailing by eight, the Spartans (14-3) went on a 28-3 run that lasted nearly six minutes. Devin Thompson scored 26 of his game-high 31 points in the second half, while Nick Gagliolo and Matt Manning each added 12.Click here for more photos”Devin was exceptional, and he’s certainly capable of doing that,” St. Mary’s coach Kevin Moran said. “We needed a spark, and he gave it to us.”Fenwick led by as many as 10 points in the first half and was still ahead with two minutes left in the third quarter, but got buried by an avalanche. Matt Costello led the Crusaders (3-10) with 14 points, while Dom Luoni added 13.”I thought we controlled the game for 21/2 quarters, but they just have so much more experience than we do,” Fenwick coach Mike Kane said. “They hit a couple of shots, and we lost our composure.”The Crusaders led, 40-32, with 3:22 left in the third quarter when Gagiolio started the run with a driving layup. Thompson followed with a rare 4-point play that got his team and the crowd back into it. In the final minute of the third quarter, Thompson buried another three from the left wing to give the Spartans their first lead at 44-43, and J.J. Cavanaugh nailed a three from almost the exact same spot to put St. Mary’s on top by four.The Spartans put the game away with a 13-0 run to start the fourth quarter. Thompson opened the scoring with a steal and a layup, then another three off an in-bounds play, and a couple of minutes later he converted a pair of free throws to give St. Mary’s a 60-43 lead with 5:08 to play.Luoni answered to cut the lead back to 12, but Thompson buried his fourth and fifth 3-pointers of the second half to put the game away.”A lot of what we got on offense came from making the extra pass,” Moran said. “A lot of times we settled for the first available shot in the first half, but we did a much better job of moving the ball in the second half.”Despite two 5-minutes stretches in the first half when it didn’t score a field goal, St. Mary’s inexplicably found itself only trailing by two points (28-26) at halftime. Costello bookended a 13-0 run with a floater from the lane to give Fenwick a 10-point lead in the first quarter.The Spartans chipped away and eventually tied the game at 26-26 when Manning made a foul line jumper, but Fenwick’s Kendrick Timothee glassed in a layup just before the buzzer to put the Crusaders back on top.Gagliolo was recognized with a standing ovation before the game for scoring his 1,000th career point in a win over Arlington Catholic on Tuesday.