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Prep wins Christmas debut

Saturday, December, 30 By Jeff Hamrick

METHUEN — St. John's Prep coach John Dullea considered two factors before entering the Commonwealth Motors Christmas Classic.

And after running away with Saturday night's title, his Eagles checked both of their coach's boxes.

One night after edging Lawrence in a semifinal overtime  thriller, The Prep rallied from a 15-point second-quarter deficit and throttled another MVC contender, defeating Central Catholic 80-69 in the school's debut appearance in the tournament at Klimas Field House.

"I told the kids there were two reasons we wanted to enter this tournament," Dullea said. "One, we want to win. We enter every game hoping and expecting to win. That's why we play. So, we wanted to win the tournament.

"But probably just as important is we wanted to play some Merrimack Valley teams. Those are the best teams in the area, and we don't get a chance to play them a lot. Come (the postseason regional) tournament time for the last however many years, we've had to go through Merrimack Valley teams in the tournament. So part of us coming into this tournament was getting some exposure against those teams."

On Saturday, Central overcame the absence of 6-foot-5 big man Colin Bradanese, who was suspended after a flagrant foul in a semifinal victory over Methuen, by grabbing an early lead it held until midway through the third quarter.

Overcoming a dominant opening half by tournament MVP Tommy O'Neil, who scored 19 of his game-high 32 points and grabbed 11 of his 19 rebounds, the Raiders rode a 13-4 run to open a 33-18 advantage with 4:38 left before intermission.

The Raiders, who had just one turnover the first two quarters, used 12 points by Kevin Constant to grab the big lead. Constant had a pair of back-to-back full-court drives during the run.

"We had an emotional game (against Lawrence on Friday) when a lot of guys played a lot of minutes," Dullea said. "We knew we might get off to a slow start, but we wanted to stick with our game plan and what we wanted to do." 

St. John's (4-1) quickly turned around the situation, finishing the half on an 18-5 run to cut its deficit to two 38-36 at the half. O'Neil scored 10 of his team's final 12 points of the quarter over a stretch of 2:35.

The Eagles took the lead for good on a layup by O'Neil with 4:45 left in the third. From the time Central (3-1)  took its 15-point lead until the end of the third quarter with The Prep holding a 55-49 lead, the Raiders missed 19 of their 24 field-goal attempts.

"Obviously you have to make shots," said Central coach John Walsh, whose team also missed 11 of its 21 attempts from the line. "We didn't make some shots. We got the looks we wanted, but we just didn't make them."

After falling behind by 12 midway through the fourth, Central clawed back behind Constant to close within five at 69-64 with 1:55 left, but St. John's closed with a flourish. Constant led the Raiders with 22 points while Dom Keegan and Bret Edwards chipped in with 14 and 10, respectively.

 "I thought we played hard and they fought," Walsh said. "Now we have Lowell on Tuesday, and Lowell's a great team. I hope we're ready to go."

Matt Relihan helped O'Neil's cause with 18 points while Jarnel Snow-Guzman scored 12 and Nate Hobbs had 10.