LYNN — It wasn’t raining in Lynn Sunday afternoon. Well, at least not outside.
With eight 3-pointers in the third quarter and 15 total, St. Mary’s boys basketball team cruised by Lynn Tech 73-38 at Lynn English to capture the Walter J. Boverini Basketball Tournament title.
Better yet, make it 6-0 for the Spartans in coach Josh Keilty’s debut season.
“It’s such a great group of kids to coach and it’s been tremendous,” Keilty said of his experience thus far. “I was just really happy with the way our kids came out and really guarded. They shared the ball and are getting better every day.”
The Spartans sure did guard. Tech (2-2) didn’t reach double-figures until the 3:35 mark of the second quarter and trailed 31-11 at halftime.
But the story of Sunday’s game was the sizzling hand of St. Mary’s. The Tigers jumped to a 4-0 lead early, but triples from Jake Fortier (26 points), John Chareas (17), and Rowan Merryman (17) helped build a 16-8 St. Mary’s cushion after one.
Whether in transition or through the half-court offense, St. Mary’s three-ball seemingly never missed.
“If you’re on the floor and you’re open, you better shoot the ball — that’s what we’re telling them,” said Keilty, whose team defeated Lynn Classical 86-55 in Saturday’s opening round. “Everyone definitely has that green light, as long as it’s a good shot.”
You could say it’s always a green light for Fortier, who even tacked on a 4-point play. With sharpshooting and unselfish play as a primary facilitator, Fortier was named Most Valuable Player of the tournament, while Chareas received all-tournament honors.
“Jake played great. Not only the points, but his defense, discipline, and decision-making,” Keilty said. “He’s gotten so much better in such a short period of time. We love coaching him and he’s such a hard worker.”
Tech went cold in the second quarter (3 total points) and struggled to create quality shots in isolation. The Tigers needed to win the third quarter to sway momentum, but were outscored 31-14 after Merryman’s buzzer-beating layup.
“St. Mary’s is a great team — hats off to them. They wanted it just a bit more than we did. As far as making shots and getting downhill, they were just more aggressive than us,” said Tech coach Corey Bingham. “It’s early and we’ve got a lot of work. I’d say, today, it just wasn’t Lynn Tech basketball.”
Giovanni Jean made the all-tournament team and Travis Sanchez buried a pair of threes in the third quarter. That said, Bingham admitted scoring the ball has been Tech’s problem through four games.
“We’ve got to go to the lab and figure that out,” he said.
The Tigers host Manchester-Essex Tuesday at 1:30 p.m., while St. Mary’s welcomes Bishop Fenwick to the Tony C. Gymnasium Wednesday, Jan. 7 at 6:30 p.m.
“We’ve got great guys who are really smart and really talented,” Keilty said. “When you give those guys space and let them make good decisions . . . they’re so unselfish. It really is that ‘we over me’ mindset. They really don’t care who gets the stats and all these accolades.”
