RAHWAY, N.J. — Entering Wednesday’s big tilt with Roselle Catholic, St. Patrick’s junior guard Marcus McClary was averaging just 5 points a game.
Celtics coach Mike Rice said he’d be happy if the 6-foot-3, 180-pound guard scored 10 a game.
On this night he went off for 20 points — including his team’s first 12 — as St. Pat’s took care of Roselle Catholic, 46-38, in front of a packed house at Rahway High School.
The two Union County rivals will meet for a second time on Saturday night at Roselle Catholic and could face off a total of four times this season if they were to face off in the Union County Tournament and the New Jersey state tournament.
“We usually play them four times,” McClary said. “That’s why today was a big game to start off on the right foot and give us some momentum for Saturday.”
With Monmouth assistant Duane Woodward and St. Peter’s assistants Serge Clement and Alex Stone on hand, McClary scored the game’s first basket on a baseline drive and proceeded to score his team’s next 10 points, hitting back-to-back 3-pointers to extend the lead to 12-6. The Celtics (11-3) led 16-6 after one quarter.
“He was awesome,” Rice said of McClary, who holds offers from Monmouth and St. Peter’s. “He hasn’t had a breakout like that, a run like that, all year and that’s what we’re missing,”
“I give it up to my teammates, though,” McClary said. “My teammates, they’ve been talking to me in practice, saying, ‘You gotta have a big one,’ and I just came through….It’s a big win for us.”
In a game filled with high-major recruits, the Linden, N.J., native was the star of the game, although St. Pat’s also got 11 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists from Harvard-bound point guard Bryce Aiken.
After St. Pat’s took a 25-16 halftime lead, McClary and Aiken both hit three-pointers in the third period to stretch the lead to 31-18.
Still, the Lions (10-4) closed to within 38-32 thanks to a 7-2 run that was capped by two foul shots from Leondre Washington, who scored a team-best 11 points.
“We knew that they were much better than they showed in the first half,” Rice said. “They have some dynamic playmakers and we did some things in the second half where we were streched too far and we didn’t stick to our forumla. They penetrated on us.
“They made it a game and that’s what rivalries are about, taking the opponent’s best punch and coming back and giving one yourself.”
St. Pat’s did respond, going on a 5-0 mini-run and getting a drive and a dunk from McClary to extend the lead to 43-32 in the fourth.
St. Pat’s and arch-rival St. Anthony’s, which beat the Celtics, 60-56, at the recent Dan Finn Classic, look like the prohibitive favorites to win the New Jersey Tournament of Champions title. But McClary believes his team can win its sixth TOC title.
“Yes, I do,” he said. “I feel like we put in a lot of work over the summer and now I feel like it’s our time.”
On the recruiting front, Monmouth and St. Peter’s would both like McClary to play in the MAAC.
“I like Coach [King] Rice,” he said. “I like everything about Monmouth right now.”
Asked about the bench mob, who will appear Thursday on SportsCenter, McClary said, “Hopefully they can carry that to the [NCAA] Tournament.”
SYRACUSE TO WATCH RICHARDS
Nick Richards, the 6-foot-11 junior big man from St. Pat’s, was held to just 2 points while matching up with Roselle Catholic sophomore big man Naz Reid, who scored 8.
Syracuse assistant Adrian “Red” Autry is expected to watch Richards on Saturday night in Round 2 against the Lions.
“Yeah, I’m looking forward to that,” the native of Jamaica said. “They’ve been recruiting me hard since summer and I’m very excited about that.”
Richards hasn’t yet been to Syracuse, but listed Syracuse, UConn, Kentucky, Arizona and Indiana as the schools recruiting him the hardest.
“I’ll probably wait till my senior year [to focus on recruiting],” he said.
Richards has only been playing organized basketball for three years and is still rather raw offensively, but his size and athleticism are obvious.
“I’m just relying on my athleticism right now, get rebounds, block shots, run the floor,” he said.
Asked how much more he had to learn, he said, “There’s always something you can learn from basketball. It’s what Michael Jordan told everybody, there’s always someting new to learn, always something to build on.”
In the meantime, Richards and his teammates want to build toward winning a state title.
“Of course, the goal is to win everything,” Richards said. “A state championship, we’re probably going to win it.”
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