Prep Tips Off with Lawrence for Hoops Title

The St. John’s Prep Eagles visit the TD Garden tonight for a shot at a Sectional basketball title.

The Eagles plowed through and in the first two playoff rounds, and then knocked defending State Champion from the running – redemption from last year’s semi-final loss – to move on to the Division I North Final…against Lawrence High School.

Lawrence is having a dream season of its own, similar in fact to the Danvers High boys’ team (they finally succumbed to a in the Division III semi-finals). Lawrence barely made it into the postseason on a 12-8 record, but the Lancers then defeated Chelmsford in a play-in game before knocking off No. 2 Cambridge, No. 7 Westford and No. 3 Lynn English (Wednesday night) to find themselves competing against the top-ranked high school basketball team in the state.

Tonight’s game will certainly be interesting – the Eagles are flying high after putting away Central Catholic, 63-60, on Tuesday. The Prep has only lost once this season – to on Jan. 29 – and has dominated nearly every game played.

The tip-off tonight is at 8:30.

Eagles’ hockey heating up the ice in Super 8

St. John’s hockey is headed to the Division 1A (Super 8) semi-finals on March 16. The Eagles helped secure their position after and in the first two games of round-robin play.

The Prep faces off with Boston College High School on Sunday at the Tsongas Center in Lowell. That game will decide their respective places in a crossover semi-final round next week.

Under the 1A Tournament format, the Prep plays three round-robin games. The top two teams in each of two four-team brackets advance to the single-elimination semi-finals with those winners meeting for the championship on Sunday, March 20 at TD Garden.

The Eagles, the No. 2 seed going into the postseason, are now 16-5-1.

Ski team finishes third at States

On the slopes recently, the Eagles’ ski team finished third overall in the State Alpine Championships, just two points ahead of Mt. Greylock, but trailing Longmeadow by 16 points overall. The Eagles finished third in both the slalom and giant slalom events.

Bobby Holmes finished 14th in the slalom with a time of 32.41 seconds, as Wes Groom logged the next quickest time for the Prep in 20th with 32.90. Holmes finished 6th in the Giant Slalom, 45.96, followed by Tom Rogers in 28th, 47.15. The tournament was held at Berkshire East Ski Area in Charlemont on March 1 and 2.

Crabtree meets first defeat of season

And in wrestling, undefeated senior 140-pound State Champion TJ Crabtree finally met his match in Cranston West, Rhode Island’s Everet Desilets in the New England Wrestling Championships on March 5. Desilets pinned Crabtree, outscoring him 5-1, to take first place.

MassWrestling has video footage of the championship match posted on You Tube – check it out.