LYNN — St. Mary’s senior guard Jalen Echevarria came ready to play Tuesday night.
The Spartans didn’t bring their best effort, but Echevarria’s 32 points lifted them to a 74-62 win over Pope John in the first round of the Spartan Classic at Tony Conigliaro Gymnasium.
“Jalen had his normal basketball game,” Spartans coach Dave Brown said. “He took it personal going up against (Pope John’s Angel Price-Espada). But as a basketball coach that wasn’t a fun game to coach. Guys aren’t playing the way we’re capable of playing right now. If we play like this come state tournament time, we’ll have a quick exit and it’ll be a disappointing season. Hopefully at some point we can come together as a basketball team and figure out what’s going on but right now we’re not playing good team basketball.
“I don’t know if it’s guys just looking at the scorebooks and looking at who’s taking more shots than who,” Brown added. “Guys don’t look at the big picture in winning a championship as opposed to what they’re doing individually. Hopefully we can get back to playing good team basketball and not worrying about who’s putting numbers up in the books. As long as the team gets a win, that’s the main thing.”
Marvens Rosirus also reached double-figures and scored 11 points. Marcus Brunson-Perez scored nine points and grabbed six rebounds. Ademide Badmus scored six points with seven rebounds and Josh Perez tallied six points.
Pope John was led by 22 points form Price-Espada and 14 from former Spartan Frankie Imbruglia.
St. Mary’s started this one on a positive note. A 7-0 Spartans run in the opening minutes of the first quarter put the Tigers in a hole and forced them to use an early timeout. Pope John found its footing after taking a breather. The Tigers kept pace with St. Mary’s for the rest of the quarter but trailed 14-7 heading into the second.
A layup from Badmus and a 3-pointer from Echevarria gave the Spartans a double-digit lead, 19-9, to start the second quarter. But the Tigers hung tight until the final minute of the half. The Spartans closed on a 7-0 rally to lead 37-24 at halftime.
Showing no quit, Pope John made things interesting in the third quarter. An 11-4 Pope John run to start the quarter made it a 6-point game at 41-35. Cam Erickson’s jumper made it a 5-point game, 48-43, with Pope John knocking on the door.
“Pope John has some talented players,” Brown said. “When they asked to play in this tournament they actually asked to play us. They took pride in playing in this basketball game. I don’t know if our guys looked past them or not. I told them that Pope John was coming to play and they did come to play. It was a tight game at times. We made some shots when we had to but the effort, the execution and the camaraderie with the team weren’t there.”
St. Mary’s closed the quarter on a high note and Echevarria’s 3-pointer at the buzzer gave them a 53-45 lead heading into the fourth.
The Spartans knocked down their outside shots in the fourth. Brunson-Perez and Echevarria (six assists) netted a pair of three’s, the Spartans held a double-digit lead the rest of the way and rolled to the 74-62 win.
The Spartans advanced to the tournament’s championship game against Springfield Central, scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday night. Springfield Central defeated Arlington in its first round game.
“That’s probably the best team in Western Massachusetts,” Brown said. “They’re a Division 1 team with a lot of size and athleticism. If we come out and play the way we played today, we’re going to lose by 30 points. That’s a very good basketball team. I watched them beforehand. They’re very athletic with skilled players. If we don’t give 110 percent effort and we don’t play as a basketball team, we’re in trouble.”
