LYNN — St. Mary’s senior Joey Abate-Walsh needed a big game to hit his milestone, and he delivered.
Behind a 29-point, nine-rebound performance Wednesday night, Abate-Walsh grabbed his share of Spartans history by crossing the 1,000-point barrier in a 74-60 win over Springfield Science and Tech in the championship game of the Spartan Classic at Tony Conigliaro Gymnasium.
“It’s just a great feeling,” said Abate-Walsh, a North Andover native who has played for the Spartans since his sophomore season. “I couldn’t have done it without all my teammates and my coach. They support me and push me to be better every day, and I couldn’t have gotten this without them.”
“It’s such a tremendous accomplishment, and it really shows that all of his hard work has paid off over these past three years,” said St. Mary’s coach Dave Brown. “He’s been really hot lately and he’s been carrying us by averaging close to 25 points per game. Hopefully he can take this momentum and keep it going into the postseason.”
It was also Senior Night for the Spartans, who honored Abate-Walsh, Josh Perez and Lee Pacheco before the game.
“I give those guys a lot of credit, especially Josh and Lee who have been with me since freshman year and have been through a lot,” said Brown. “These guys work really hard and really set the tone for our team day in and day out.”
It was the seniors who led the way on Senior Night for the Spartans, with Pacheco putting up 16 points and 13 rebounds and Perez notching 10 points and four rebounds. David Brown (seven points) and Ali Barry (six points) also had solid games off the bench.
The Spartans controlled the pace in the first quarter, pushing the ball up the floor on offense and doing a lot of work on the boards. St. Mary’s was able to outrebound Springfield 11-4 in the opening frame, giving the Spartans a host of extra opportunities at the basket. St. Mary’s took as much as an 8-point lead midway through the quarter, but a late run by Springfield set the score at 18-12 Spartans after one.
The second quarter was a bit up and down for St. Mary’s. The Spartans opened the quarter with a 3-pointer to take their largest lead of the game, but over the following five minutes Springfield crawled back into the game. Behind a 12-point outburst by Springfield’s Xavion Martin, the Spartans’ lead was cut to just 25-24 with three minutes to play in the half. But St. Mary’s righted the ship from there, closing the half on a 19-10 run to take a 44-34 lead into the break.
St. Mary’s continued to steadily build its lead in the third quarter, finishing the frame with a 15-point lead thanks to strong play from Abate-Walsh and Pacheco.
In the fourth, the Spartans had the game in hand. But the crowd remained on edge while they waited to see whether Abate-Walsh would hit 1,000. Finally, after a handful of missed shots, Abate-Walsh knocked down a fadeaway 3-pointer — after it had bounced on the rim three times — with 4:16 to go to notch his 1,000th career point.
“I just wanted to get it, I just wanted to have it be done with,” said Abate-Walsh. “Once it went in, it was like a weight off of my shoulders. Now we can just focus on winning it all.”
From there, the reserves came into the game and the Spartans coasted to victory.
St. Mary’s finishes out the year with a 21-2 record and is now awaiting its seeding in the upcoming Division 3 North tournament.
“It’s great to have this kind of momentum going into the tournament, but at the same time we know that we have to buckle down if we want to make it in the tournament,” Brown said. “We know we suffered a tough loss to end it all last year, so we know we need to be focused now more than ever.”