LYNN — The St. Mary’s boys basketball team is starting to round into postseason form, and that good form continued Thursday night with a 79-55 win over Roxbury Prep in a non-conference battle at Tony Conigliaro Gymnasium.
“We played well the whole game, even at the beginning when we were getting the shots we wanted and they just weren’t falling,” said St. Mary’s coach Dave Brown. “Roxbury was able to knock some shots down early, but once we started getting shots to fall we were able to break things open.”
Lee Pacheco led the way offensively for the Spartans, notching 22 points and four rebounds.
“Lee’s averaging around nine points and eight rebounds a game, so to see him have a 20-point game is great,” said Brown. “Any given night, one of our top seven guys can do that for us. As a matter of fact, we’ve had each one of our top seven guys lead us in scoring in at least one game this season. That’s a great luxury to have.”
Sammy Batista added 14 points, Joey Abate-Walsh had 12 points and seven rebounds, Ali Barry had eight points and four rebounds, David Brown had seven points and seven rebounds and Josh Perez had four points and four rebounds.
The Spartans also continued to work in sophomore guard Henri Miraka, who missed a good chunk of the season with an injury. Miraka had four points and three rebounds in his second start back from injury.
“It’s been good to get him back in the rotation,” Brown said of Miraka. “He’s one of our better defenders, he can handle the ball and he can get to the basket for us. It’s good to have him back in the mix.”
The first quarter was back and forth the whole way. St. Mary’s took an early 4-0 lead, but Roxbury fought right back to tie it at 4-4. The two teams continued to go back and forth until Roxbury took its first lead of the game at 15-12. In the final seconds of the quarter, Barry knocked down a 3-pointer to tie things, 15-15, going into the second.
St. Mary’s settled down a bit more in the second quarter, thanks in part to the solid play of Pacheco and Batista, who combined for 19 points in the first half. The Spartans were able to extend their lead, pushing ahead by as many as 10 points. After a small run by Roxbury to close the quarter, St. Mary’s took a 35-29 lead into the halftime break.
From there, the Spartans exploded offensively. St. Mary’s outscored Roxbury 20-8 in the third period to jump ahead by 18 points, then extended that lead to as many as 25 points in the fourth quarter before coasting to the victory.
As the Spartans (16-2) hit the home stretch of the season, Brown likes where his team is as preparations for the postseason are the top priority.
“I really like the way the guys are getting after it in practice and how hard they’re working to get better,” Brown said. “We know that come tournament time, if you don’t play well in one game that could be it for you. So they know the urgency is there to play well every night, and they’ve worked hard to do that.”
St. Mary’s is back in action Monday (6:30) with a home game against Cathedral. With a share of the lead in the Catholic Central League, a win would clinch the league title for the Spartans.
“That’s been a goal of ours all season,” Brown said of clinching the CCL. “We know that that game is going to be an important one for us, so we’ll work hard this weekend and be ready to go Monday.”
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BOYS BASKETBALL
Greater Lawrence 55, Tech 45
Luis Pinero scored a team-high 13 points while Yael Visciano had a solid all-around game with eight points and three steals. Greg Hernandez also had eight points. Tech is back in action Monday night at Chelsea (5:30).