March 4, 2012 — At Milton High School, took on St. Joseph of Medford in the quarterfinals of the State Tournament. They opened up a big halftime lead and then held on for the victory and a spot in the Final Four.
It took just 33 seconds for St. John's to take control with a Matt Hubauer jumper. Before St. Joseph knew what had hit them, Swampscott went on a 12-point run led by 3-pointers by Nick Scibelli and Gavin Sullivan to take a 16-2 lead with 6:53 left in the half. After a brief Medford spurt, Stevie DiLisio canned another 3-pointer on a feed from Donnie Weisse to make it 22-7 with 2:59 to go. Weisse then set up Colin O'Brian for a lay-up to start a late second half surge. Chris Murphy followed with a conventional 3-point play and St. John's opened up a 23 point halftime lead.
Things didn't get any better early on for St. Joe's. Hubauer hit his team's fourth 3-pointer of the game just 15 seconds into the second half. With 11:40 to go, Josh Allen passed to Travis Thurman and a made jumper seemed to put the game out of reach for Medford. But they were not through yet. They went on a 20-4 run interupted by two Matt Moran baskets to get back into the game trailing now 49-37. Five more points cut the St. John's lead to 49-42 before Alex Derkautsan ended the run with 1:35 left in the game and St. John's up by nine. Back to back St. Joseph's baskets made it 51-46 as time wound down. Travis Thurman came up with a big three quarter court pass to Chris Murphy with 31 seconds left to finally finish off St. Joseph's for a 53-46 win.
Matt Hubauer led St. John's with 9 points. Chris Murphy had 7 rebounds along with 8 points. Donnie Weisse had a solid all-around game with 6 points, 6 assists, and 4 boards. St. John's moves on to the Final Four where they will take on the undefeated League Champion, St. Rafael of Medford who are currently 17-0.
