The lights may have been too bright in St. Mary’s loss to Kent Denver last week, but that wasn’t the case in a Friday night matchup against 3A foe Thomas MacLaren.  The Pirates (4-1) led for nearly the entire contest and led by as many as 24 points in the fourth quarter to take a 74-62 win over the Highlanders (2-2) on the road. Thomas MacLaren cut the Pirates’ lead to 12 in the final minutes after St. Mary’s fell into foul trouble.  “We weathered the storm,” St. Mary’s coach Trey Harris said. “Thomas MacLaren came out with a lot of energy and I’m proud of the way my guys played in the second half. We settled down and ran our offense.”  Senior Dominic Lewis led the Pirates with 17 points while their top scorer this season, sophomore Kisean Dawson, was limited to eight. Dawson had averaged 14 points per game entering Friday’s contest.  The Pirates were also without center Michael Trechter, who leads the team in field goal percentage (61%) and is the team’s second best rebounder with 5.1 per game.   “Everyone is a big player but we definitely felt Michael’s absence tonight,” Lewis said. “Our team battled adversity, when they went on a run we responded with a run ourselves. We never got down on ourselves and always kept pressure.” Thomas MacLaren sophomore Angelo Tiggett led the Highlanders with 22 points, a season high. Tiggett noted that the Highlanders were in their own heads most of the game and made little mistakes like turnovers as a result.  After leading 4-0 to open the game, Thomas MacLaren fell into a nearly six-minute scoring drought in the first quarter to allow St. Mary’s a 7-0 run. A 3-pointer by Nate Stokes tied it at 11 with about a minute to go, but another 3-pointer by the Pirate’s Jackson Beam gave St. Mary’s a 14-13 edge heading into the second quarter.  The Pirates continued to extend their lead in the second and led by as many as 10 with about a minute to go to lead 34-25 at the break.  The Pirates outscored the Highlanders 40-37 in the second half and Thomas MacLaren only scored one field goal in the last five minutes of the third quarter. The Highlanders went to the foul line four times over a minute in the fourth. St. Mary’s is 4-1 after starting 0-3 last season, the result of an older, more mature team. Playing state champion Kent Denver last week, a 77-44 loss to the Sun Devils, also prepared them for any sort of game, including one like Friday’s that started fast.  “We’ve been in this position before and know how to play tough teams and use that to our advantage,” Lewis said. “We keep pressure every time. We have a mission this year and that’s to win state.” ...read more read less