LYNN — Talking about living up to expectations. With No. 13 Newburyport visiting No. 17 St. Mary’s in Division 3 action, Friday night didn’t disappoint at the Tony C Gymnasium.

But in the end, Newburyport (15-3) clipped the Spartans (10-7) in a 58-53 final.

“It’s a learning experience for a lot of these kids,” said St. Mary’s coach David Brown. “We need to play better basketball than that; it wasn’t a good basketball game for us.”

The Clippers entered the fourth quarter with a 19-point lead (49-30).

“Execution on sets, knowing their personnel, knowing where their shooters are, it was just bad execution from us,” Brown said. 

But in what seemed to be a routine win for Newburyport, the Spartans didn’t go down without a fight.

Star sophomore JJ Martinez of St. Mary’s scored 13 of his team-high 21 points in the final frame to bring life to the hosts.

“The kids didn’t give up – I’ll give them that much,” Brown said. 

After some hard drives and difficult makes from Martinez, St. Mary’s – with its newfound energy – started to rack up the turnovers.

St. Mary’s made it a one-possession game (56-53) with 35 seconds left. The Clippers inbounded the ball and tried to work the ball upcourt, but the ball was stolen by the Spartans, which led to a timeout from Brown with 25.2 seconds remaining. 

But with a chance to tie the game, the Spartans turned the ball over themselves. The Clippers cashed in at the line to snag the win.

“We had a chance to tie it late in the game, but we had a bad turnover,” Brown said. “We have to execute and get a shot off no matter what. The kids are, hopefully, going to learn from that.”

For Brown, he believes this can be a learning experience for his young team. 

“Coming into this season with really only one kid with varsity experience (Martinez), they have to learn that every possession counts at this level,” Brown said. “If you get down 19 to a team like that, they’re a well-coached basketball team and it makes it difficult to come back. We shouldn’t get down by 19.” 

The Spartans’ offense couldn’t get going in the first half with two of their proficient scorers, Martinez and sharpshooter Jake Fortier, failing to register field goals. 

“We were struggling to score in the first half. JJ or Jake didn’t have a basket, which is crazy. To be only down two points, we figured we were in a good situation,” Brown said. “Jake is a bit under the weather, so maybe that affected him tonight.”

Despite dropping the game, Brown saw similarities to a group he coached a few years ago. 

“This team reminds me a lot of the COVID year. When David (Brown Jr.) and them were sophomores and Ali (Barry) was a junior, we lost a lot of tough games and ended up being like 12-7, but they got a lot of experience,” Brown said. “The next year, they understood what they had to do to be successful at the varsity level. I’m hopeful that they’re learning from this, but at the same time, I think we’re good enough to be winning some of these basketball games. To beat Andover – who’s a top team in the state – and Lynn English, we know we can play with most teams. We just need to execute in the big games.” 

Time will tell for the far future, but in the short-term, St. Mary’s is back in action Saturday when Martha’s Vineyard comes to Lynn for a 3 p.m. tip-off.