PEABODY — Thursday was Senior Night for the Bishop Fenwick boys basketball team.
Unfortunately for the host Crusaders, it was St. Mary’s senior Joseph Abate-Walsh who was the life of the party, shooting lights out from beyond the arc to help lead the Spartans to an 83-60 win.
“My teammates really moved the ball and gave me some open looks,” said Abate-Walsh. “I was surprised that Fenwick stayed in that zone.”
Abate-Walsh was 4-of-5 from 3-point land in the first quarter alone, finishing with seven treys and a game-high 30 points.
Junior Max Grenert led the Crusaders with 19 points.
“We’ve been shooting the ball pretty well this year,” said Spartans coach Dave Brown. “Our main thing is we need to push the ball up in transition after makes or misses. We’re trying to get these guys to play a little faster than we are used to playing so we knew with them (Fenwick) in zone, if we could get into transition, that would work well for us.”
Fenwick coach Kevin Moran said the Crusaders knew coming into the game that Abate-Walsh presented a match-up problem.
“I said all along that the big boy Walsh is a stud in this league and we typically don’t see 6’8″ shooters in this league. He’s tough to cover,” Moran said. “We considered coming out of the zone, but we knew that Walsh was going to do that. You give and you take. Yeah, we came out of it a little, but we had some foul trouble early so that really limited our considerations. They just don’t come down and shoot it, they move the ball so well. They just shot phenomenal.”
Grenert staked the Crusaders to a 3-0 lead in the first minute of the game, but that was as good as it got for Fenwick. The Spartans closed out the quarter with a 19-5 run to take a 19-8 lead after the first. Fenwick junior guard Alex Gonzalez cut the deficit to eight at 19-11 after he drained a deep 3-pointer. With the Spartans on top 21-13, Spartans sophomore Ali Barry, who had just entered the game, provided a spark. A block, steal and dish to senior Josh Perez, followed by a couple of free throws from sophomore Henri Miraka and a Barry 3-pointer bumped the lead to 29-13 with five minutes to go in the half. After a Fenwick timeout, Crusaders junior Christian Loescher (four points) stopped the bleeding with a bucket, but an Abate-Walsh dunk and-one got the Spartans lead to 17 at 32-15.
“Ali is playing very well for us and gives us scoring off the bench,” said Brown. “He has long arms and shoots the ball very well.”
A Grenert free throw and 3-pointer following a steal by Jason Romans sliced St. Mary’s lead to 35-16 with four minutes to go, but the Spartans put the game out of reach with consecutive treys from junior Sammy Batista, Barry and two from Abate-Walsh to make it 44-19, Spartans, which took a 49-25 lead into halftime.
Abate-Walsh opened the second half with a pair of free throws and his seventh trey of the game. Grenert responded with a three of his own, but a big block from Abate-Walsh a transition layup and an and-one swung all the momentum to the Spartans with a 57-28 lead.
With the Spartans on top 73-4, the fourth quarter was an opportunity for both coaches to empty their benches.
The Spartans’ Dave Brown (13 points), Henri Miraka (11 points) and Barry (10 points) finished in double figures, while Jason Romans (12 points) finished in double figures for the Crusaders.
St. Mary’s (18-2) is back in action Tuesday at home against CCL rival Cardinal Spellman in the Spartan Classic (7).
Fenwick’s (10-7) next game is Sunday afternoon against Gloucester in the opening round of the Larry McIntire IAABO 130 Tournament at Beverly (2:30).
“They also have a big stud player, their senior all-star, so we had a couple of studs (Thursday), but hopefully we will be ready to challenge him,” said Moran.
