BOSTON— Friday night’s game against Fenway at the Cathedral Holiday Hoopfest provided two tests for the St. Mary’s boys basketball team.
The Spartans went into the game coming off their first loss to the season, in an exemption game to BC High, and coach Dave Brown was anxious to see how his team would respond. Test No. 2 was a Fenway team that has emerged as one of the more talented squads in Division 4.
The Panthers hung with St. Mary’s for a quarter, but the Spartans controlled the pace the rest of the way for a 68-46 win at Cathedral High.
“The loss to BC High was one of the worst games I’ve been involved with in the last 12 years as a coach,” Brown said. “The kids really responded. The biggest thing was our energy wasn’t there against BC High. We realized that we have to bring a lot of energy to compete against the best teams.”
In a battle between junior guards, St. Mary’s Jalen Echevarria led all scorers with 23 points while Fenway’s Davonte Sweatman scored 19 points. Echevarria and Sweatman were both named to the tournament’s all-star team.
Junior forward Joseph Abate-Walsh added 13 points, knocking down a pair of 3-pointers, and senior guard Onias Mirbel tallied nine points for the Spartans.
“Fenway beat Cathedral on Thursday,” Brown said. “They’re a very good basketball team. It was nice to see us work for easy baskets against their pressure.”
Fenway’s high-pressure defense gave the Spartans problems in the early stages of the first quarter. St. Mary’s was kept off the scoreboard until Abate-Walsh knocked home a 3-pointer with 2:50 on the clock. Echevarria added a 3-pointer and a floater but Fenway’s Jahya Francis beat the buzzer to keep the Panthers close. Fenway trailed 10-7 at the end of the first quarter.
“We hesitated a lot,” Brown said. “We wanted to break through the press and score, instead we broke the press and stopped with the ball. Those kids were very athletic and they defended well. We didn’t score for the first five minutes of the game and that was bad.”
The St. Mary’s offense began to find its rhythm in the second quarter, when the Spartans switched gears towards attacking the basket. An 11-4 Spartans rally saw St. Mary’s open up a double-digit lead at 22-11. When Cathedral slimmed the deficit down to nine, the Spartans rattled off a 6-0 run to take a 34-19 advantage at halftime.
“Our strategy today was definitely to attack the basket,” Brown said. “We wanted to get the ball to the post area. Because of their pressure we were able to get out in transition a little bit more and attack the hoop.”
In a more evenly-matched third quarter, the Panthers outscored the Spartans 17-15. Marvens Rosirus swished a pair of free throws to close the quarter and St. Mary’s led 49-36 after three.
With a hefty lead in St. Mary’s favor, Echevarria caught fire in the fourth quarter to seal the victory. The Spartan co-captain scored the first 10 points of the quarter to give St. Mary’s a 59-38 edge with 5:10 remaining in the game. From there, the Spartans coasted to the 68-46 win.
“Jalen’s been struggling a little bit with his shot lately,” Brown said. “He’s shooting great from the free throw line but his 3-ball hasn’t been going well. He needs to attack. Opponents will respect that and it opens space for him at the 3-point line. Hopefully this game gets him going in the right direction.”
St. Mary’s (3-0) now switches its focus to preparing for next week’s Boverini Tournament at Classical. St. Mary’s is the defending tournament champion, as the Spartans thumped English in last year’s final.
“We open with English and they’re a very athletic Division 1 team,” Brown said. “They’re playing well with a new coach in Antonio Anderson, who’s a good friend of mine. We’re expecting a battle. If we play the way we’ve been playing we could be in trouble. We have to go back to the drawing board and figure out some things.”
Brown foresees a tough schedule in the coming weeks for his Spartans.
“We’re a young team and we know the iron of our schedule’s coming up,” Brown said. “The next four or five games are against ranked teams, and most of them are on the road. We have to execute better on the offensive end and improve as a basketball team.”
