St. John’s hands Putnam first in state loss since 2013

DANVERS ? Until they meet again?
In what could be a preview of the Division 1 state final, the St. John’s Prep basketball team knocked off Roger L. Putnam Vocational Technical Academy of Springfield, 75-72, in the first round of the Larry McIntire IAABO Board 130 Classic, at St. John’s Prep’s Memorial Gym, Monday night.
The Beavers (16-3) are the two-time defending Division 1 state champions, and hadn’t lost to an opponent from Massachusetts in more than two years. But the Eagles (15-4) don’t consider this win to be an upset.
?They’re a great team, but we feel like we can play with anybody,” St. John’s Prep coach John Dullea said. “The reason we play the schedule we do is to prepare us for games like this, and for games later on in the (state) tournament.”
The Eagles face North Andover (9-9) Tuesday (7:15 p.m.) in the McIntire Tournament championship, while Putnam plays Pingree (12-4) in the consolation game (3:45). North Andover defeated Pingree, 71-53, in the other first-round game.
St. John’s was led by Ben Judson with 21 points, 18 of which came in the second half, while Kareem Davis and Spencer Danforth added 17 each. Ty Nichols paced the Beavers with 20, while Tyonne Malone added 17. Malone was almost unstoppable when he was on the floor, but he was hampered by foul trouble for most of the game.
?If (Malone) doesn’t foul out, maybe it’s a different story, but you’ve got to give St. John’s Prep all the credit for winning the game,” Putnam coach William Shepard said. “They shot the ball very well.”
Putnam led, 45-44, after three quarters, and the first five minutes of the fourth quarter featured 11 lead changes and two ties, the last of which occurred when Putnam’s Jon Garcia made a layup off a steal with 2:27 to deadlock the game at 59-59.
Malone picked up his fifth foul when he hammered Danforth on a drive to the basket on the next possession. Danforth made both free throws, and on the next Eagles’ possession Jake Burt followed up a Tyson Johnson miss in the lane with a putback rebound to give St. John’s a four-point lead ? the largest for either team in the second half until that point.
Putnam had to go into a fouling mode in the final minute, but the Eagles went 12-for-14 from the line ? with Davis 7-for-8 ? to keep St. John’s out in front.
Putnam blitzed St. John’s with a 6-0 run to open the game, and Dullea called timeout to give his players a pep talk.
?I think we were playing scared,” he said.
Danforth brought the Eagles out of their funk with three three-pointers to spark a 13-2 run that gave St. John’s what turned out to be its biggest lead of the first half at five points. Malone scored 13 points in the first period, after which Putnam led, 15-14. The second quarter was a back-and-forth affair, with six lead changes and four ties, and ending with the same one-point margin (31-30), with the Beavers ahead.
The third period was similarly close, with neither team opening up a lead of more than three points. Judson scored 10 points in the third quarter.?It’s a great win for our program, but if we don’t follow it up with another win (today), what have we accomplished?” Dullea said. “We still haven’t played an entire 32-minute basketball game. I don’t think a lot of high school teams do, but that’s our goal, to play a complete game.”