WORCESTER, Mass. — St. Mark’s junior Donovan Clement drained six 3-pointers in Sunday’s NEPSAC Class B Large championship. But it was a 2-point shot from Clement that drew the loudest roar of the game from the Lions fans stuffed into the bleachers at Worcester Academy.
With 1:32 left, Clement sprinted to the hoop, leaped high in the air and slammed home a lob from CJ Farrell with authority. The rim rattled, and the gym buzzed as everyone inside Blackburn Court digested the highlight-reel play.
Clement’s alley-oop dunk served as the punctuation mark in St. Mark’s 70-58 win over Canterbury in the Class B title game, capping a dominant winter under third-year coach Justin Perron that saw the Lions climb back to prep basketball prominence in rapid fashion.
MORE BOYS CHAMPIONS: Class AAA — Newman beats Hoosac | Class AA — Cushing beats Cheshire | Class A — Hotshkiss beats Phillips Andover | Class B Small — Holderness beats Kingswood Oxford
“After every practice we have, we don’t circle up in the middle court,” said Perron. “We circle up under the banners. It shows six New England championships. The standard is right there. We've been looking at it every day since June. We knew if we stayed together, we could be here.”
Sunday’s victory gave St. Mark’s its first NEPSAC title since 2012 and finished a 22-6 season. The top-seeded Lions went 16-1 against in-class opponents and beat Brooks and Rivers during the regular season for the first time in more than a decade. All that remained was to add a seventh championship team to the banner.
However, St. Mark’s was on the ropes early in the second half, trailing Canterbury, 37-30, when Perron called a timeout. Inside the huddle, senior Alex Echevarria, Perron’s first recruit when he took the job in 2023, steadied the ship.
“Everyone listened when Alex spoke,” said Perron. “We just locked in.”
After the timeout, St. Mark’s embarked on a 15-2 flurry to seize control. Clement splashed a right-wing triple and Echevarria followed with another long ball. The Trinity-bound senior promptly took over, finishing a 3-point play in the lane before dishing to Clement for another 3-pointer.
In the blink of an eye, St. Mark’s flipped a seven-point deficit into an 11-point lead.
“We’ve been there before, so there was no panic,” said Echevarria, who scored 18 points. “We had plenty of time, and we just had to do our thing.”
Added a choked-up Perron, “It’s immeasurable what Alex brings to the team. He’s a leader on and off the floor. He was my first recruit for a reason because he’s selfless and works hard. That bled into our success.”
From there, St. Mark’s began celebrating the title. Clement, who scored a game-high 27 points to earn MVP honors, added a four-point play before his alley-oop dunk raised the roof.
Canterbury, which beat Rivers in Saturday’s semifinals on Jared Strand’s go-ahead shot with seconds left, simply ran out of gas. Strand led Canterbury with 18 points on six 3-pointers, and guard EJ Ashby added 13 points for the Saints.
But the night belonged to St. Mark’s. Just last year, the Lions reached the playoffs for the first time in 10 years. One year later, they are at the top of Class B Large.
