LYNN— Determination and toughness are just two of the characteristics that all championship-caliber teams possess.
Both were on display by the St. Mary’s boys basketball team Tuesday night when the Spartans cruised past Cathedral, 70-52, in the opening round of the Spartan Classic at Conigliaro Gymnasium.
Playing their third game in as many days, and their second without junior forward Joseph Abate-Walsh who’s nursing an injury, the Spartans had no trouble with the Panthers- the team St. Mary’s beat in last season’s Division 4 state semifinal.
Jalen Echevarria led all scorers 26 points. Josh Perez tallied 9, Lee Pacheco scored 8 and Stephen Fama finished with 7.
“It’s very encouraging, the way we played tonight” St. Mary’s coach Dave Brown said. “I told the kids that this might’ve been our best game as a unit. Jalen shoots the ball well, Stephen’s rebounding the ball and doing the clean-up work. Chibuikem (Onwuogu) had some nice moves in the post, Josh made nice passes, Onias (Mirbel) gave us great minutes as a starter, Lee’s really stepped up the past couple games. It’s nice to see. We have a little more depth.”
Cathedral notched the first basket of the game with a 3-pointer from Jaequan Chen. St. Mary’s fired back with a 6-0 run, including layups from Echevarria, Fama and Mirbel. Fama netted a free throw in the final minute of the quarter and Onwuogu added a bucket. After one, the Spartans led 16-10.
St. Mary’s put the game out of reach in the second quarter. It started with a 10-0 run to begin the period, with 8 points coming from Echevarria, putting the Spartans ahead 26-10. The lead reached the 20’s when Fama knocked in a 3-pointer, boosting it to 35-13. Perez swished a 3-pointer at the buzzer and St. Mary’s led comfortably, 40-14, at halftime.
The key to the big quarter was St. Mary’s creating turnovers on defense and cashing them in for easy baskets in transition. The Panthers were held to just 4 points in the second quarter.
“We went to our half-court trap to push the tempo and we created some turnovers,” Brown said. “Jalen got out in transition and made some layups, Stephen handled the ball and found open guys. That was a big quarter for us.
“I thought this was one of our better games all season considering the way we moved the ball, the way we pushed the ball in transition and the way we defended,” Brown added.
Cathedral’s Anthony Berry provided a spark off the bench for the Panthers in the third quarter but it wasn’t enough to slow the Spartans down. Echevarria added two more 3-pointers to his performance and Pacheco hit a pair of freebies in the closing minute of the quarter.
After three, St. Mary’s led 59-29 and cruised to the win after Brown emptied his bench in the fourth quarter. Reserves Frankie Imbruglia, Majak Wol, Connor O’Neill, George Ogenah and Taban Manyok all scored in the fourth.
“Even the young guys like Marvens (Rosirus) and Frankie gave us nice minutes off the bench,” Brown said. “You never know when your number’s going to get called in the tournament. We had some young kids step up last year. Guy’s numbers will be called and hopefully they can answer.”
Before Tuesday’s game, the Spartans learned their fate for the upcoming state tournament. The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Council ruled that St. Mary’s will be seeded based on its record (16-3) but the Spartans will play all their tournament games as the visiting team.
“I’m happy they didn’t penalize other teams in the tournament,” Brown said. “I’ll still say we did nothing wrong. They made a rational decision and I can respect that.”
St. Mary’s hosts Matignon in tonight’s (7) Spartan Classic championship game.