DANVERS — The same problems that have cost the St. John’s basketball team from turning competitive performances into wins this season limited the Eagles Tuesday night.
They trailed for the entire second half despite inching close a handful of times and couldn’t mount a comeback in a 76-72 loss to Malden Catholic at Pat Connaughton Court.
“Malden Catholic plays some pretty good defense,” Eagles coach John Dullea said. “This has been an issue for us, we go on a little bit of a run then we can never finish it off. It happened in the BC High game (73-52 loss) and it happened again (Tuesday). We can never get that one or two baskets we need in a row.”
Despite the loss, Luke Poirier (21 points) and Aidan Callahan (14 points) each played well for St. John’s. Freshman Rolando Castineyra did everything he could to keep the game tight in the fourth quarter. Castineyra scored 10 of his 13 points in the frame, helping cut Malden Catholic’s lead to just two points in the final seconds before the Lancers closed things out.
“He’s going to be a great player,” Dullea said of Castineyra. “Right now he’s our second leading scorer. We rely on him for scoring. He can hit shots with the best of them. He showed it (Tuesday). As a freshman in this league it’s not easy to step right in and play. Nothing really fazes him and we’re excited for him.”
Poirier started the night off hot for the Eagles with a pair of early 3-pointers, but the Lancers balanced attack kept pace.
The first quarter saw five lead changes before St. John’s defense stiffened up. The Eagles forced three straight turnovers and took full advantage to take a 20-16 lead into the second.
But things started to fall off the rails for St. John’s midway through the second. The Lancers went on a 13-2 run highlighted by several steals of their own and took a 36-27 lead before an Eagles timeout.
“We play with three or four guards so the turnovers should not be an issue but (Tuesday) it was,” Dullea said. “(Malden Catholic) has good on ball defenders and they kind of had their way with us taking it from us defensively.”
Callahan willed St. John’s back into things, scoring seven straight points out of the timeout, but Malden Catholic carried a 38-34 lead into the half.
Castineyra started the second half with a 3-pointer to cut the Lancers lead to 38-37 but that was as close as St. John’s got for the rest of the night.
Led by Cristian Rios (21 points), Malden Catholic got its lead up to as many as nine and continued to build its edge the rest of the way until late in the fourth quarter.
With the Eagles trailing 71-63 with just a few minutes left, Castineyra started to get hot and capped off an Eagles run with a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 74-72 in the final seconds.
Castineyra had a chance with the ball in his hands to tie the game a few seconds later but Jahmari Hamilton-Brown came up with a huge block to keep the Lancers ahead.
From there Malden Catholic knocked down its free throws to seal the 76-72 win.
“Malden Catholic is a good team,” Dullea said. “They play hard. They play tough. It’s a good conference game but we’re on the short end of the stick again.”
The Eagles (4-3) will hope to bounce back when they host Boston English Friday (7).
