LYNN — With more than 500 fans watching Tuesday night’s highly-anticipated boys basketball showdown between No. 1 St. Mary’s and No. 16 Lynn Classical, the Division 3 matchup ended with the Spartans protecting home-court in a 75-54 final.
St. Mary’s – in front of a raucous crowd, especially its student section – started off strong with a 7-0 run out of the gate.
Classical Coach Marvin Avery called a quick timeout. Once the early nerves settled, Classical found its game and trailed by just four points (31-27) at halftime.
Size and putback opportunities were difference-makers in favor of the Rams.
But in the second half, St. Mary’s upped its defensive pressure. The Spartans continued to press the Rams and forced Classical into bad passes and tough shots, leading to fastbreak opportunities the other way.
The Spartans began the second half with a 12-2 run – much to St. Mary’s Coach David Brown’s delight.
“We try to play in segments. I told them that the first three minutes of the second half are going to be huge,” he said. “Classical made that run at the end of the first half to cut it to four, which was great for them. We just had to throw a punch at them and see how they responded.”
Avery admitted the second half was the turning point.
“That’s what I call home-court advantage,” he said. “In the first half, we were in the ballgame, but they made some good adjustments and the turnovers killed us in the second half.”
Two players who were up for Tuesday’s challenge were JJ Martinez (26 points) and June Vasquez (15) of the Spartans.
“When you have JJ, you have the best player on the floor,” Brown said. “He’s going to put the ball in the hoop during crucial situations – that’s what he did for us.”
Brown praised Vasquez for making timely shots and stepping up off the bench.
“June is shooting 39 percent from 3-point land for the year. People didn’t know much about him coming into the season because he didn’t play a lot of varsity minutes,” Brown said. “But he averaged 30 points at the JV level. We knew we could expect big things from him. He started some games this year. He defends too and opens the floor for Jake (Fortier) and JJ.”
Vasquez spoke about his mindset of playing for the seniors.
“I was just going out there to kill for my seniors. Any of these games could be their last, so I’m trying to go out there and give my all for them,” he said. “Hopefully, we can help get them a chip for their last game.”
Classical was led by Rolky Brea Arias, who scored 11 points in the first half.
The Rams held the size advantage with Arias and Shyheim Babb, and Brown knew it was important to keep them off the glass.
“We honestly felt they couldn’t beat us unless their big kids dominated the game,” Brown said. “We thought we had a big advantage with our guards and we told the kids that if we keep their bigs from owning the backboard and scoring putbacks, we’d be OK. Our goal was to keep them to 52 points and we were right around there in the end.”
For Avery, he loses just two seniors to graduation and believes the rest of his players can learn from Tuesday.
“It’s a very good experience and we’ll be ready to go again next year. No one expected us to get this far,” he said. “We’re the Greater Boston League champs and the experience took its toll on us. Losing a pretty talented point guard in my son (Marvin Jr.) to Austin Prep took some experience from the team, but that’s no excuse. We still went out and competed against a very good St. Mary’s team. That’s why they’re the No. 1 team.”
After losing to Lynn Tech toward the end of the regular season – and a slow start against Falmouth last Friday – the Spartans were off and running Tuesday.
“We played with a lot of trust in this game. The past two games, we had rough starts,” Martinez said. “We’re getting back to it and trusting each other. We’re working hard in practice and moving the ball.”
St. Mary’s will play No. 8 Abington in the Round of 8 (TBD).
