LYNN– Tuesday night’s game between the New Bedford and St. Mary’s boys basketball teams was a lesson in patience for the Spartans.
They struggled to dictate the pace of play and couldn’t find much rhythm offensively through the first half. The second half, however, was a different story as the Spartans hit their shots and rolled to an 81-58 non-conference win at Tony Conigliaro Gymnasium.
“We played with a little more energy (in the second half),” St. Mary’s coach Dave Brown said. “We tried to put our press on a little bit there. We reminded the guys that this is one of the teams we lost to last year.”
St. Mary’s featured five scorers in double-figures: Josh Perez (17 points), Lee Pacheco (16), Henri Miraka (14), Ali Barry (14) and Sammy Batista (13).
“That’s how I think it’ll be most of the year,” Brown said. “On any given night out of our top seven we’re expecting all of them to put the ball in the basket. With five guys scoring in double-figures that’s good for us as far as opposing teams trying to defend us. They can’t concentrate on one person. Hopefully we get it going and all seven guys can play well night in and night out.”
Knocking down shots was easier said than done in the opening half. The Spartans, with a size advantage, established an inside game from the early going. They used a series of dump-offs in the paint to build an early lead and added points via the free throw line, drawing fouls en route to the basket. St. Mary’s didn’t get much going for itself outside of the post.
On the other hand, New Bedford banked in a pair of 3-pointers in the first half to keep close with the Spartans. St. Mary’s led 16-7 at the end of the first quarter and 26-18 at halftime with seven points from Pacecho.
“I don’t think we were making that extra pass,” Brown said. “There were a few times we got in transition and guys were trying to go through two or three defenders to make their shot instead of making a simple pass. I think we shared the ball a little better in the second half and guys made shots too.”
The Spartans generated offense much more consistently in the third quarter. Miraka corralled an offensive rebound and followed with a lay-up to get things started. Joey Abate-Walsh followed with St. Mary’s first 3-pointer of the night. A series of turnovers, playing into New Bedford’s press, helped the Whalers close the gap to 33-28. But that’s as close as they’d get.
A 21-10 run over the next six minutes allowed St. Mary’s to carry a 54-38 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Freshman David Brown’s lay-in and sophomore Barry’s 3-pointer stretched the lead into the 20s and St. Mary’s ran away through the closing stretch.
“We’re trying to get some minutes for those guys,” Brown said of his reserves. “The past two games we’ve had big blowouts. They both got probably over 20 minutes (Tuesday). It’s going to be a learning curve for them playing at a varsity game speed, learning to run our sets, playing defense and executing our offense.”
Up next for St. Mary’s (2-0) is a home non-conference battle with St. John’s Prep Friday (6:30).
“St. John’s is a well coached basketball team,” Brown said. “They’ll come down and they’re going to execute on the offensive end. They’re definitely going to defend. We’re going to have to play a better basketball game than we played (Tuesday) to play with St. John’s, for sure.”
BOYS TRACK
St. Mary’s 61, Williams 14
First place finishers for St. Mary’s included Chris Mejia (55m, shotput), EJ Leone (300m), Dylan Moroney (300m), and Taban Manyok (1000m, high jump).
GIRLS TRACK
Williams 41, St. Mary’s 32
The Spartans got first place finishes from Kaelyn Jennings (55m) and Julianna Taborda (600m).
