BOSTON — A bad bounce.
That’s all that separated the St. Mary’s boys basketball team from hitting a game-tying 3-pointer at the buzzer to force overtime in Wednesday’s Division 3 state semifinal against Burke. Unfortunately for the Spartans, David Brown Jr.’s shot bounced off the rim and out and St. Mary’s fell 50-47 at TD Garden.
“Basketball’s a game of makes and misses, and we just didn’t make the shots (Wednesday),” said St. Mary’s coach Dave Brown. “I give a lot of credit to Burke, they did a great job of defending the 3-point line. It was tough for us to get open looks.”
Senior Lee Pacheco led the way with 12 points and eight rebounds in the loss, while fellow senior Joey Abate-Walsh had 10 points and six rebounds. Brown Jr. had seven points and four rebounds, while sophomore Henri Miraka had six points and nine rebounds. Josh Perez scored five points, while Ali Barry had three points, three rebounds and two blocks and Sammy Batista had three points.
The Spartans got off to as bad of a start as they possibly could have. After opening the game tied 2-2, Burke went on a 13-2 over the next three minutes to blow the game open at 15-4. By the end of the first quarter, the Spartans trailed 23-12.
“(Burke) came out and really knocked down a lot of shots,” Brown said. “But our guys hung in there and kept fighting their way through it.”
But in the second quarter, things flipped. Behind some strong play from Barry, Abate-Walsh, Pacheco and Batista, St. Mary’s closed the gap over the course of the quarter and eventually forced Burke to take a timeout with the Spartans trailing just 25-23. A few possessions later, St. Mary’s took its first lead of the game after Batista knocked down a corner 3-pointer to make it 28-27. The Spartans took a 32-27 lead into the halftime break.
But Burke didn’t go away. The Bulldogs rallied back in the third quarter to tie it at 34-34 and eventually take the lead at the end of the third, 40-39.
The fourth quarter saw more back-and-forth action, with the two teams battling through two ties and two lead changes in the early portion of the quarter. Eventually, Burke took a 47-45 lead with under a minute to play. Then Juwan Dawes hit a big-time clutch jump shot for the Bulldogs to put Burke ahead 49-45 with 37 seconds left.
St. Mary’s didn’t quit, getting a quick basket from Abate-Walsh and then fouling on the other end. After Burke’s Jamari Foy missed his free throw, Brown Jr. pulled down the rebound and raced up the court for one final shot. He got a good look, but the ball ricocheted off the backboard a little too hard and bounced off the rim, giving Burke the win.
While Brown wishes his team could have gotten the win, he appreciates the time he was able to spend with this year’s team.
“I really enjoyed coaching this year, it was an amazing season,” Brown said. “I’m disappointed that we lost, but I’m not upset at all. I’ve been doing this for 17 years, I really enjoyed coaching my son this season and we had a great group of guys. We lost, but we had a lot of fun this year. I told the guys, just learn from it.”
St. Mary’s closes out the season at 23-3.
