Prep, Carbone Surge Past Lawrence in 2nd Half to Claim D1 North Title

After a sluggish start, trailing Lawrence High School through most of the first two quarters, the St. John’s Prep basketball team dominated the game over the Lancers at the TD Garden Friday night, but not quite in its typical fashion.

The usual standouts for the Eagles, Pat Connaughton and Stephen Haladyna, were major contributors in the scoring, but the night belonged to junior Michael Carbone.

Carbone, who netted five points in the first and 10 in the second quarter, took matters into his own hands after the half. The Eagles defense held Lawrence to just 10 points in the third, as Carbone erupted for five 3-pointers of his own, one of which was from outside the NBA 3-point arc with 1:45 left in the third to put the Eagles up by 11.

Carbone single-handedly outscored Lawrence 15-10, to start the second half romp.

“If we get him some open looks, he’s a great shooter!” said head coach Sean Connolly on Carbone. “Every night, different guys step up, tonight was his (Carbone’s) night.”

Carbone, who wears number 31, ended the night with 31 points as the high-scorer of the game, but scoring wasn’t the only factor in the win.

“Every game we have to focus on defense, Defense is our (team) goal every night.” Carbone added after the game.

Connaughton was not far behind in the scoring column with 28 points of his own. Haladyna did his job to ignite the huge crowd with a bucket and a foul early on in the second. He had 17 points to round out the top three scorers for the Prep.

As for Lawrence, the big man in the middle, 6-foot-6 Jose Hiraldo ran into foul trouble early, and just like , had to sit most of the first half with three quick personal fouls to open the game.

With 5:44 left in the second quarter Carbone would hit one of his seven 3-pointers on the game, to take the lead for the first time. With 2:47 left in the half, and the Prep leading only by two, the two teams would trade bucket-for-bucket to go into the half with the Eagles clinging to a one-point edge, 47-46.

As the second half began, the game began to get away from Lawrence with Hiraldo still sitting with four fouls and Carbone draining threes. The Lancers no doubt threw a scare into the Prep, ranked No. 1, by than the No. 15 seeded team ever showed it was capable of until the postseason. As the Lancers started an offensive passing attack, an out of position official inadvertently deflected a pass and knocked the ball out of bounds, which created a turnover and took the wind out of the sails for Lawrence.

St. John’s seemed to confuse Lawrence with the rotation of players in and out of the key, pick-and-rolls and fast breaks. Lawrence started to fade as Connaughton grabbed his 20th rebound of the game.

“We just go with the flow. Stick to our game-plan and play good defense. Whatever it takes to come out on top,” said Connaughton after the game. “We go hard up the middle and we have the ability to create foul trouble on the big men inside the paint.”

When asked about Carbone’s game: “We knew he could have a game like that. He’s a shooter and shooters shoot. Amazing!” Connaughton added.

With the Division I North Sectional title in hand, the Eagles play D1 South Champion Mansfield on March 15 (7:45 p.m) at the Garden in a semi-final round for the State Championship. The winner of that game will play the winner of the D1 Central/West semi-final for the State Championship on March 19 at the DCU Center.