LYNN — The St. Mary’s boys basketball team jumped out to an early lead over Catholic Central League foe Archbishop Williams Monday night, but a late rally by the Bishops forced the Spartans to have to work for their victory. In the end, St. Mary’s came out on top, 68-56.
“(Williams) did a good job of staying in the game the whole time, and we knew they’d be a tough matchup because they’ve been playing well over the past few weeks,” said St. Mary’s coach Dave Brown. “I think we were also dealing with some heavy legs out there. We played three games last week and had practice over the weekend, so the guys have been putting in a lot of work. They’ll really enjoy the day off they’re getting (Tuesday).”
Sammy Batista led the way for St. Mary’s, hitting five 3-pointers en route to a 21-point, four-rebound performance. Joey Abate-Walsh added 17 points and five rebounds, while Josh Perez just missed a double-double with nine points and nine rebounds. Lee Pacheco (eight points, five rebounds) and Ali Barry (eight points, two rebounds) had solid games, while David Brown (five points, three rebounds) provided key minutes off the bench.
Lately, the key for the Spartans — who have been a bit shorthanded in recent weeks — has been getting strong play from the top seven players in the lineup.
“For the past few weeks, we’ve been predominantly playing six or seven guys at an average of 26 minutes per night,” said Brown. “That definitely puts some wear on your body and is tough to maintain all year. Hopefully we’ll be getting Henri Miraka back at the end of this week and that will help take a little pressure off the rest of the guys.”
The Spartans got off to a hot start, thanks in large part to Batista, who ran the show from the point guard position and scored 10 points in the opening quarter. Abate-Walsh added eight points in the frame as St. Mary’s pushed its lead to 23-10 by the end of the first.
Williams actually outscored St. Mary’s in the second quarter by a score of 15-13, but it wasn’t enough to cut the deficit to single digits. Behind big plays from Perez, Abate-Walsh and David Brown, the Spartans went into the halftime break on top by 11, 36-25.
In the third quarter, Williams started to cut into the lead after the Spartans extended their advantage to as many as 16 points. But the Bishops went on a run of their own to cut the deficit to just seven. By the end of the third, St. Mary’s lead had been whittled down to just 10 at 48-38.
Williams kept its foot on the game in the fourth and sliced St. Mary’s lead down to six points at 56-50 with 3:30 to play. But that’s when the Spartans gained a foothold and held off the rally.
After big plays from Abate-Walsh, Perez and Pacheco, St. Mary’s got the lead back up to 10 points in the final minutes. Batista then hit a huge 3-pointer to effectively seal the win, and after two more free throws from Perez the Spartans walked away with the victory.
St. Mary’s (13-2) is back in action Friday evening (6:30) on the road with a conference game against Arlington Catholic.
“That’s going to be a big game for Arlington Catholic because they’ll have a chance to get within one game of us in the league if they can get a win,” said Brown. “We know that they’re a well-coached basketball team, and we’ll have to come ready to play. We’ve been playing well for the past couple weeks, so hopefully we can keep that going.”