PEABODY — St. Mary's sharpshooter Tyler Grillo drained the second of back-to-back 3-pointers to give his Spartans their first lead of the night, 60-58, with 1:47 left and the Bishop Fenwick bench sighed — they couldn't possibly allow their rivals from Lynn to come from behind and knock them off again, could they?

This time, the only sighs after the final buzzer were those of relief. The Crusader defense was flawless over the final 1:47 and Nolan DiPanfilo's lay-up with 19 seconds left saved the hosts as Fenwick emerged with a 64-60 victory.

"That defense is something we haven't had all season. Usually we've cracked under pressure and this time we stepped up and got the job done," said Fenwick's junior captain Mike Clifford.

Strong inside defense held St. Mary's Tade Ogunboya to a pair of contested shots in a desperate attempt to tie the score in the final 30 seconds. Phil Eagan gathered the last rebound and knocked down a pair of free throws with 0.1 on the clock.

"Every time we play St. Mary's it's a war. This is a huge win for us, especially after the last time," said Fenwick coach Sean Connolly, recalling the Jan. 11 contest at St. Mary's in which the Crusaders let a 24 point lead slip away. The win lifts Fenwick to 7-8 on the season, needing wins in three of their final five games to qualify for the state tourney.

After leading the entire way and going down with less than two minutes to go last night, the Crusaders might've been having flashbacks. But they kept their composure, clamped down on defense and saw Nick Coroia make a pinpoint pass to DiPanfilo on the baseline for the winning bucket.

"We tried to keep them calm and just told them that if we're going to win, we'll win it on the defensive end. We did," said Connolly. "I was very proud of the way they played defense down the stretch."

The Spartans limited Clifford's touches inside and the big fellow scored 11 points while grabbing 20 rebounds. Sophomore guard Trevor Grace more than filled the void from the outside, knocking down five treys and totaling a game high 20 points. DiPanfilo added 15.

"Trevor stepped up pretty big today. He shot the heck of the ball," said Clifford. "When we hit outside shots it's awesome. If we can keep playing like this, we're going to be dangerous."

That sharp outside shooting helped the Crusaders build a 21-15 lead through the first quarter that extended to 38-31 at the half. Fenwick hit seven of their eight treys for the night in the opening half.

"Everyone pays so much attention to Mike that guys were open on the wing," Connolly said. "We needed guys to knock down shots and Trevor did tonight."

A sloppy third quarter in which they turned the ball over eight times and managed just 11 points nearly doomed the Crusaders as the Spartans began to mount their comeback. But solid defense and Clifford's monster night on the glass kept St. Mary's in check.

"We were able to keep the lead because we got the stops on defense," said Connolly.