Boys hoop: St. Mary’s gets the best of Williams

The St. Mary’s boys basketball team traveled to Archbishop Williams Friday night, and stifled Williams to the tune of 57-42.The St. Mary’s defense held the Bishops to just 29 points through the first three quarters of play.”I was very happy with how our defense showed up tonight,” St. Mary’s coach Dave Brown said. “Our defense has been the backbone of our team all season long, and that did not change tonight.”St. Mary’s led 41-29 going into the fourth quarter in large part because of Curtis Lockett. Lockett scored 13 of his 17 points in the second half. Curtis Gerraud scored 13 points off the bench for the Spartans.”We still would like to see more consistent production from the offense side of the ball,” Brown said. “I am confident the offense will come together before the state tournament comes.”St. Mary’s has improved its record to 13-4.Classical 57, Peabody 46At Classical, the Rams turned up the heat with a big second half. Philip Rogers topped the ticket for Classical with 12 points with Monte Wolfe and Eddie Solis each contributing 10 points. Matt Correale led the way for Peabody with 19 points. Jared McCarron was good for 11 points.”We just tried to stress that Peabody was a good team. Went over there six, seven weeks ago and kind of got lucky and came out with a one-point victory. They play teams tough. They’re scrappy,” Classical coach Tom Grassa said, adding the game plan was to not let Peabody kill them with threes.Peabody is 7-10 and the Rams are 10-3 in the Northeastern Conference and 12-8 overall.Gr. Lowell 72, Tech 57At Greater Lowell, the Tigers had strong performances by Odell Tiggs (23 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists) and Michael Anaya had 14 points and six rebounds.Fenwick 77, Cathedral 47At Fenwick, the Crusaders (10-8) have now qualified for the state tournament for the first time in four years.”This was an accomplishment we set to reach at the beginning of the season,” Fenwick coach John Preziosa said. “This is a great feeling, and I am very happy for my team, especially our seniors. I have to give former coach Mike Kane a ton of credit starting the foundation of this team, and putting this team together.”Matt Costello (23 points) and Dom Luoni (25 points) was a two-headed monster for the Crusaders.KIPP 68, Salem Acad. 19At Salem Academy, KIPP (6-1) sprinted to a 42-12 lead at the end of the first half, and cruised the rest of the way. Leading the way for KIPP was Danya Smith (18 points, 5 rebounds, 3 steals). Ricardy Mehu filled up the stat sheet for KIPP (9 points, 6 steals, 5 rebounds). Josh Puati, Jose Calera and Dave Metelus all had seven points each for KIPP.Marblehead 73, Gloucester 44At Marblehead, the Magicians (8-7 overall, 6-5 in the Northeastern Conference/South) came out on fire, grabbing a 46-12 lead at the half.Cian Saunders led the way with 22 points while Matt Millett had 10 and Spencer Craig 11.The Magicians had 25 free throws, and were 11-20 in the second half alone.Salem 73, Revere 49At Revere, the Witches (12-3) came out of the gate strong, taking a 42-37 lead at the half. Salem had four players in double figures, David Kazadi (19 points); Rashad Keys (16 points); Jamie Dominguez (13 points) and Bryan Martinez-Rodriguez (14 points).”They made a nice run at us in the second quarter and cut it to two,” Salem coach Tom Doyle said. “But we closed out the second quarter with a nice run of our own to break away.” Revere (7-10) had strong play off the bench from Tommy Chea, Steve Elevich, Dante Lauria and Nermin Ibreljic to keep things close. Michael Ciambelli led the Patriots with 12 points.Danvers 75, Swampscott 50At Danvers, the Falcons put this one out of reach early, outscoring the Big Blue 51-20 in the first half. Joe Ragusa had 14 points for Swampscott and Chad Nelson, 11. Danvers had four players in double figures, Peter Merry (14 points), Kieran Beck and Rishad Francois (12 points each) and Devan Harris (13 points).”They really jump on us and we didn’t answer well,” Swampscott coac