ITEM PHOTO BY KATIE MORRISON
Jonny Mercado and the Spartans stunned Cathedral with a come-from-behind win.
By STEVE KRAUSE
WOBURN — This has been the year for fantastic comebacks, both on the biggest of national stages and now, on the smallest of state stages.
The St. Mary’s boys basketball team fashioned the second one with an improbable come-from-behind 74-68 win over Cathedral to win the Division 4 state semifinal game and advance to the state final Saturday (TBA) against Maynard — the same team it defeated to win the championship last year.
It’ll be a busy weekend over on Tremont Street. Aside from the basketball team, the boys hockey team plays Framingham Sunday (5:45) at the TD Garden for the Division 1 state title.
Early in the second quarter, the Spartans were behind the Panthers by 21 points (33-12). From that point on, St. Mary’s outscored them 62-35.
How did that happen?
“We weren’t going to score any 21-point baskets,” said Steve Fama, who, as he has done all year, did yeoman duty on the boards while scoring 14 points. “Just keep cutting into the lead. Keep scoring.”
The main author of this comeback, though, was sophomore Jalen Echevarria, who got hot early (he was the only person who scored a basket, except for one 3-pointer by Fama, in the first half) and stayed on fire throughout. He finished with 33 points, including two back-breaking free throws with 1.3 seconds showing on the clock. That made the score 71-68. And when Jonathan Mercado intercepted a Cathedral pass heaved up as a prayer just before the buzzer sounded, the ball went through — which makes the final score a bit deceiving.
Even in the second quarter, as Cathedral was shooting the lights out of the basket, the Spartans weren’t down.
“Coach (David Brown) called a timeout after we got down by 21 and told us he still believed in us, and there was no bunch of guys he’d rather coach but us,” said Fama.
“They were shooting the ball unbelievable,” said Brown, as he watched the Panthers connect on six threes in the first 16 minutes, including three of them in rapid-fire succession coming out of the opening gate to take an 11-2 lead.
“We figured eventually they’d have to cool off.”
And when they did, St. Mary’s heated up. By the time the half ended, St. Mary’s had whittled seven points off that lead, and it was 36-22.
Oddly enough, it wasn’t the New England Patriots’ incredible Super Bowl comeback on Brown’s mind at halftime.
“We talked about that Maynard game, when were down by eight points with 47 seconds to go and won.
“We came out in the second half and spread the ball around better, and passed it better, and our guys started making shots.”
Brown wasn’t expecting to be ahead after three quarters — just to be in a position for one final run to win the game.
But as it turns out, his expectations were too low. Successive threes by Echevarria and Fama made it an 8-point game (36-28). Emanuel Green boosted the Cathedral lead back up to 10 with a bucket before Fama and Jonathan Mola (both threes) cut into the lead some more. Trevor Lynch scored to make it 40-34, but by then the Spartans smelled blood.
Mercado, Mola and Echevarria (a three) finished the 20-4 run, and by then, St. Mary’s had not only wiped out the lead, but had gone ahead.
Lynch’s 3-pointer cooled St. Mary’s jets a little — but not for long. By the end of the third quarter, the Spartans were up by one.
“Once we started hitting our shots,” said Brown, “it got everyone’s confidence up.”
If there were any doubts among the fans at the Woburn High gym that the third-quarter run hadn’t tired out the Spartans, they opened the fourth with a 10-2 run to go up 58-49 with just over five minutes to go.
But goodness knows it wasn’t going to be that easy. Cathedral got its mojo back in the form of Khalil Blair, who had been hot in the first half but had been held in check for the third quarter. He and Echeverria traded baskets before he connected on a three with 4:09 to go and it was 60-54.
St. Mary’s had a chance to do some damage at the foul line, but couldn’t hit the free throws. However, Mike Cerulli hit a big basket to get the lead back up to eight, and it was a good thing he did. When Nate Duncan, who had just entered the game in place of foul-plagued Calvin Cheek (9 points) drained a three, the lead was down to five (62-57). And when Lynch came right back down and hit a three, the lead was down to two, and the entire gym was squirming.
But St. Mary’s held. The Spartans were beneficiaries of a charging call against Cathedral with 1:11 to go and Mercado took advantage of it with a three to make it 66-60.
Free throw woes enabled Cathedral to keep creeping within one and two points, but St. Mary’s hit just enough of them to stay ahead. Finally, Echevarria hit both ends of a double-bonus trip to the foul line and the Panthers were finally beaten back.