BOSTON — St. John’s Prep basketball coach John Dullea likes to pack his team’s schedule with competitive opponents. A tough opponent was what the Eagles got from O’Bryant Monday morning in the Slades/BABC Holiday Classic at Cathedral.
O’Bryant hung close for two and a half quarters before St. John’s pulled away in the second half for a 73-58 win.
“Every year we play a tough schedule,” Dullea said. “This year we tried to make it a little different. We’ve played teams from the Merrimack Valley, Boston City and we then have the Catholic Conference. We’re trying to get a glimpse of every different style so that when it’s tournament time, we’re not surprised with what we see.”
Nate Hobbs led all scorers with 25 points (hitting 11 free throws), Tommy O’Neil added 22 points with 15 rebounds and Matt Relihan scored 12.
“Nate’s been battling a few nagging injuries,” Dullea said. “He’s a high-flying kid. He takes some pretty hard falls. When he goes to the basket hard, he falls on his back sometimes. He’s going to take some of that because he drives to the basket hard. It’s good to get him back in the flow.”
In a back and forth first quarter, O’Bryant gave St. John’s everything it could handle. Every time the Eagles built a lead, the Tigers banked a shot and took it back. Relihan netted a basket to put the Eagles ahead 14-13 in the final minute but the Tigers knocked in a 3-pointer in the closing seconds to reclaim the lead. After one, O’Bryant led 16-14.
St. John’s picked up its offensive rhythm in the second quarter but the Tigers kept close. A lay-in from O’Neil and a 3-pointer from Relihan put the Eagles ahead by four, 26-22, midway through the quarter. St. John’s padded its lead to seven behind a 3-point play from Hobbs with 22.2 seconds left. Hobbs muscled his way through the paint for a lay-in, drew a foul and hit his free throw to put the Eagles up 34-27. O’Bryant netted a 3-pointer before the end of the quarter to slim the deficit to 34-30 at halftime.
“We were able to score in different ways today,” Dullea said. “That’s certainly going to help us in the long run.”
The Eagles forced O’Bryant into a slew of turnovers in the third quarter and cashed them in. Hobbs turned a breakaway steal into an easy dunk to begin an 8-0 St. John’s run. Hobbs added a pair of freebies while Relihan and Will Batchelder hit a jumper each to propel the spurt. St. John’s led by as many as 13 in quarter No. 3, and O’Bryant trailed 50-41 moving into the fourth.
“We haven’t been playing great defense lately but we try to pride ourselves on getting stops,” Dullea said. “We know that when it comes down to the fourth quarter that’s what we have to do. We were able to take them out of some of their half court sets and limit them to one shot. That’s huge. When we’re able to force teams to one shot and grab the rebound, more often than not we’ll be successful.”
The Tigers drained a quick 3-pointer to start the fourth, whittling St. John’s advantage down to six. Patrick Sweetnam answered with a floater on the next possession and the Eagles rolled to victory from there.
St. John’s improved to 7-2 and travels to Boston again Wednesday night (7) for a showdown at BC High.
“Offensively we’re doing pretty well,” Dullea said. “I think we need to improve on our defense as a whole. We have to get better defensively but offensively we can continue to improve. Teams play different defenses against us almost every game. It’s a long season. We’re pretty happy with where we’re at but we’re not content. We need to keep getting better every day.”
