LOWELL — The St. Mary’s boys basketball team wasted no time punching its ticket to the TD Garden.
The Spartans came out of the gate red hot and never looked back in a 63-40 rout of Weston Saturday in the Division 3 North final at Lowell’s Tsongas Center.
After getting out to a 19-point lead in the first quarter, it was clear that St. Mary’s was going to dominate every facet of the game. The Spartans defense forced turnover after turnover and Weston had no answers.
“We thought we could pressure them a little bit and once the game got going we realized we could pressure them more than we thought,” St. Mary’s coach Dave Brown said. “We turned it up a little bit and forced turnovers. We were jumping into passing lanes very well.”
On the offensive end Josh Perez (11 points) did a fantastic job running the Spartans offense while Joey Abate-Walsh (15 points) and Sammy Batista (7 points) did the shooting.
“We definitely shared that ball,” Brown said. “I think Josh Perez had an outstanding game (Saturday). I don’t know what he ended up with points-wise, but I guarantee he had six or seven assists that led to easy baskets. That was important to get us going early. Joey is always going to knock down shots and Sammy knocked down some shots too.”
The first quarter belonged to the Spartans, particularly forward Lee Pacheco (15 points). Everything the senior put up in the first eight minutes was right on the money and he scored 11 points to make St. Mary’s offense go in the first.
Abate-Walsh knocked down a 3-pointer on the Spartans final possession of the quarter and St. Mary’s was up 23-4 before the second.
“Weston had been playing good basketball,” Brown said. “We got some film on them, we knew they were going to try to trap us in the half court. This being a big court that most teams aren’t used to playing at I think was an advantage for us. We were able to spread them out and look to the weak side and get some easy baskets that way.”
Both teams kept pace in the second quarter and St. Mary’s kept its 19-point lead, 32-13 heading into the half.
With Abate-Walsh adding seven points in the third quarter and Batista knocking down another three in the frame St. Mary’s took a commanding 44-19 lead heading into the final eight minutes.
Weston went on a small run early in the fourth but it wasn’t nearly enough as the Spartans cruised to the win.
“Everyone wrote us off in April when we lost our senior scorers,” Brown said. “All the talk was that St. Mary’s is all done and look now, we’re back at the Garden. And this is a basketball team we have this year. No individuals. They all pick each other up when the going gets tough. They don’t care who’s scoring points, who’s getting assists and who’s getting playing time. This is a basketball team.”
St. Mary’s now heads to the TD Garden, where it will take on South champion Burke in a Division 3 state semifinal game Wednesday (3:45).
“As you get older and every season goes by you realize it’s not as easy as people think (to get to the state semifinals),” Brown said. “The team we had last year, everyone thought we were clear cut favorites and we had a tough loss. These guys worked hard in the offseason and were determined to get back here. We’re not done yet but I’m really proud of these guys.”
