NEWBURYPORT— The St. Mary’s boys basketball team has a way of saving its best for key stretches.
Thursday night in the Division 3 North state tournament quarterfinal, the No. 1 Spartans shook off a slow start and made enough key plays down the stretch for a 68-52 win at No. 8 Newburyport.
“Not only do we have tournament experience but we try to schedule as tough as we can,” Spartans coach Dave Brown said. “This was a great high school environment for a basketball game. Our guys didn’t panic. They knew when to settle down and get a shot when we needed it.”
Jalen Echevarria and Joseph Abate-Walsh led the Spartans with 24 and 17 points, respectively. Echevarria, who hit five 3-pointers, is 58 points away from reaching 1000 for his career. Abate-Walsh, returning from an injury he suffered late in the regular season, swished three 3-pointers.
“Newburyport did a good job coming out with its defense,” Brown said. “Teams are scouting us and they know Jalen’s our leading scorer. All of our players are capable of scoring the ball. We went with a different starting five because of Joey and Chip’s (Onwuogu) injuries but those guys were able to give us quality minutes.”
Stephen Fama logged a double-double with 10 points and 11 assists. Lee Pacheco, off the bench, added 10 of his own along with 7 rebounds.
St. Mary’s came out sluggish in the early going as the Spartans struggled to find their footing in the first quarter. Fortunately for St. Mary’s, the Clippers couldn’t get much going either. Casey McLaren (20 points) swished a pair of 3-pointers and a free throw, and Bretton Ross (6 points) added a basket. Newburyport led 9-6 in the closing seconds but a layup from Abate-Walsh made it a 1-point game at the end of the first quarter.
Both offenses picked up in the second quarter. Echevarria netted a 3-pointer on the first possession of the period and Abate-Walsh kept his hot hand. The junior forward scored 8 consecutive points, on a pair of 3-pointers and a bucket, to give the Spartans a 23-16 lead with 2:41 on the clock. Refusing to let St. Mary’s pull away, McLaren beat the buzzer with a three of his own. At halftime, the Spartans led 27-22.
“Newburyport played tremendous tonight,” Brown said. “They moved the ball against our pressure, made us get out of our trap on defense. No. 22 (McLaren) made a lot of tough shots.”
The Spartans looked to pull away with an 8-2 run to start the third quarter. Fama got things started with a putback after an offensive rebound and Echevarria knocked in back to back threes. The rally gave St. Mary’s a 35-24 lead and forced Newburyport to call a timeout.
The Clippers slimmed the deficit to 4 (36-32) before Fama added a much-needed layup and found a wide open Pacheco for another bucket after swiping a steal. Fama’s playmaking bumped the Spartans lead to 40-32. St. Mary’s remained ahead, 44-36, after three.
“I tell the guys you never know when your number’s going to get called,” Brown said. “Throughout the year, the JV and varsity practice together and guys are competing against one another all season long. Last year we had some young guys step up. Tonight, Lee stepped up with some key baskets and rebounded the ball. That was big for us with some injuries to our big guys.
“Once we settled down in the second half we realized that they were overplaying Jalen if we ran them to the corners,” Brown added. “Stephen hit Lee for some easy baskets in the post which was nice.”
With Newburyport within striking distance the Spartans turned to Echevarria to seal the win. The junior guard scored 13 points in the fourth quarter to put the Clippers away and solidify St. Mary’s spot in the semifinal.
“We were able to gain our composure in the second half,” Brown said. “We settled down, got some open looks. Once we were able to get the ball to the block a few times, Jalen was able to get a few open looks and he knocked them down tonight. I don’t think he took many shots to score 24 points.”
St. Mary’s (18-3) awaits the winner of tonight’s (7) quarterfinal between No. 4 Bedford and No. 5 Whittier.
