ITEM PHOTO BY KATIE MORRISON
St. Mary’s senior Jonny Mercado, right, comforts teammate Jalen Echevarria after Saturday’s loss.
By STEVE KRAUSE
SPRINGFIELD — Not this time.
The Maynard High Tigers weren’t going to let another one slip past them and kept the pedal to the metal for 32 minutes en route to a 62-42 win over St. Mary’s Saturday in the Division 4 state boys basketball final.
The Spartans had their share of Lazarus moments this season. You can start with the big one. Despite losing Matt Cross, their 6-7 center who was so instrumental, as an eighth grader, to them winning the championship last season, for the entire winter, the Spartans made it back to Springfield College Saturday.
Then there were the smaller ones: an eight-point comeback in a span of 45 seconds against the Tigers in February; and a 21-point turnaround just this past Wednesday in the state semifinal to defeat Cathedral.
But when the Spartans started out slowly Saturday against the Tigers and again got themselves into a hole, you had that going-to-the-well-once-too-often feeling.
There would be no dramatic comeback this time. The Tigers kept their feet on the throttle and never let up.
“They may have been a little more motivated than us,” acknowledged coach Dave Brown after the game.
Maynard coach Paul Howes, who was sporting a bright orange (as in Tiger) tie, wouldn’t admit to being more motivated because of last year’s loss to the Spartans in the final; or this year’s loss in February at St. Mary’s.
“I don’t even know what word I want to use,” said Howes, who brought the town’s first-ever state title back home. “It’s not revenge, or payback or anything like that. We have too much respect for them and their program. Look at how often they win — and in all sports.
“We knew we had obstacles to overcome,” he said.
Perhaps. But on Saturday, it was St. Mary’s dealing with the obstacles. And that started and pretty much ended with a 3-2 zone in which Howes had all his big men around the top of the three-point arc. This is where St. Mary’s lack of height — due in no small part to the absence of Cross — became a huge factor.
“We were expecting the 3-2 and we worked on it,” said Brown. “It was tough to get into the lane, and we weren’t making our shots.”
For example, guard Jalen Echevarria, a sophomore whose outside shooting all season opened up so many possibilities for him and others to drive the lane and draw fouls, had 11 points. But he was dwarfed for most of the game by player at least a head taller (and sometimes more) than him.
“And (Maynard’s players) were also long,” said guard Mike Cerulli (5 points) which, in basketball parlance, means long-limbed. All of the big men around the perimeter were active in jumping up and down in efforts to deny St. Mary’s good looks at the basket.
And as Brown said after the game, the lack of outside shooting closed off those drives through the lane.
There were a couple of other factors. One big one, in more ways than one, was the presence of junior Chris Bastien, who was not on the floor at St. Mary’s in February.
“It really helped having another 6-6 kid out there today,” Howes said. Bastien may have only scored six points, but as a defender at the top of the zone, and as a rebounder, he was crucial in keeping St. Mary’s off the board.
Also, while St. Mary’s loaded up its defense to stop guard Corey Olivier (a quiet 11 points, all in the second half when the game was pretty much over), that just gave other Tigers the opportunity to pounce. Senior forward Eric Kiley finished with 21 points to lead the way.
“Our game plan was to not let (Olivier) beat us, but other people stepped up and did,” said Brown.
“We saw that a lot this year, especially from the good teams like St. Mary’s, who had the talent to actually do it,” said Howes, “so we learned how to counter that.”
Maynard led 14-7 after one quarter and doubled the margin to 28-14 after two.
And where the Spartans came out and blitzed Cathedral to open the third quarter last Wednesday to get back into that game, there was no such spurt Saturday. An 18-5 run by Maynard took care of that — and, for all intents and purposes, the game. The Tigers stayed in that zone, and by the time St. Mary’s began hitting with some more regularity (Jonny Mercado ended up with a team-high 13 points to go with Echevarria’s 11) it was too little, too late.
“We never quit, though,” said Brown. “I told my guys afterward that we could hold our heads high. Nobody had us back here after all we went through (not only did Cross break his leg in the Super Bowl game in December, but the Spartans were missing junior Calvin Johnson as well).”
Still, to the three seniors (Cerulli, Mercado and Jonathan Mola) who played their last game, it was a bitter pill.
“Just to see the look Coach’s face … the disappointment … it was hard to see,” said Mercado.