PEABODY — It was a high-octane boys’ basketball affair in Peabody Friday night, with St. Mary’s and Bishop Fenwick combined for a total of 159 points. The Spartans used a 50-point first half to take control of the game, winning 87-72.
The hosts were down 21-13 after one, and 50-28 at the break, but Fenwick kept coming back, cutting the lead to 10 points a couple of times, before Spartan Nick Sacco sank a bucket and four free throws late in the fourth quarter to close out the Crusaders.
St. Mary’s coach Dave Brown, whose team improves to 18-1, felt Fenwick made it tough on his club, but they were able to dig down and get some space each time the Crusaders made a run.
“Certainly we were trying to wear them down with our speed, but they surprised me, they kept after us. In the second quarter we were able to get some turnovers, do what we needed to do, to get the lead, and do what we needed to do, obviously,” Brown said. “I give (Fenwick) a lot of credit, a lot of credit, they didn’t go away, I thought we could wear their top three guys, but those guys played 32 minutes and they played well.”
The Spartans got that 22-point lead at halftime behind double figures from Ali Barry, David Brown and Omri Merryman. Barry scored 13 in the first half, Brown was right behind with 12, and Merryman dropped in 11.
After scoring eight points in the first half, Fenwick captain Michael Yentin dropped 16 points in the second half. Che Hanks chipped in with 11 points in the second half, and the Crusaders got 10 from senior Jason Romans, but they never got closer than 10 points in the final 16 minutes of the game.
Tough night for Yentin and his mates, but the captain couldn’t be more proud of his team after they battled the top seed in Division 3 the entire night.
“That’s a tough team we played, they are always a tough team, they’re 18-1 for a reason, every year we play them they’re tough (Coach Brown) always has them ready to play, and this year’s no exception,” Yentin said. “We came with a lot of energy tonight, we came up short, but I really can’t say enough about how this team played.”
Fenwick coach Kevin Moran felt giving up 50 points in the first half was not the way to go, but he liked the effort from his team.
“I actually think we picked it up defensively in the second half and that led to some better offense for us, they’ve got so many weapons and they really came after us in the first half,” Moran said. “You certainly don’t want to give up as many points as we did in the first half, you dig a hole like that, against a very good team, it’s tough to come out of it.”
The winners were led by 18 points from Omri Merryman, Ali Barry had 17, David Brown dropped in 16, and Henri Miraka had nine points for the winners. Yentin was the high man for the Crusaders with 25 points, followed by 18 from Jason Romans and 13 from Che Hanks.
