Mohegan — In the last 4 minutes, 8 seconds of Monday’s game at Mohegan Sun Arena, St. Bernard coach Mark Jones sent two separate five-player groupings of substitutes into the game, clearing the bench in a 63-38 victory over Hand.

Mohegan Sun, after all, is the end goal for all high school boys’ basketball teams in the state, the site of the CIAC state championships, and Jones wanted his players to remember the feeling of being on the floor there.

“I mean, the thing is, man, you don’t get many opportunities to play at Mohegan Sun,” Jones said. “If you’re up and all that stuff, those kids should be able to play. I’m sure and I hope they were excited to do that.”

Last season, St. Bernard fell one game shy of reaching the CIAC Division III championship game and it was due to a 76-65 semifinal loss against Hand, which went on to beat Kolbe Cathedral for the state title.

The rematch came in game two of a three-game series Monday as part of the second annual Day Holiday Classic.

St. Bernard (3-0), ranked ninth in the GameTimeCT Top 10 poll, got off to a 10-2 lead early and led 27-15 at halftime.

The margin ballooned to 20 in the third quarter after a pair of 3-pointers by senior Tyson Wheeler and the Saints continued to add to their lead against No. 10 Hand, getting the final points on a 3 by sophomore sub Anthony DeMarco.

Cedrick Similien led St. Bernard with 16 points, 12 in the first half, 6-foot-6 sophomore forward Amare Marshall had 14 points and Wheeler had 10. Kyle Hoffman was the leading scorer for Hand (2-1) with nine.

“That was our main goal, to win a state championship last year,” said Similien, a senior leader on a team which returned everyone following a 20-5 season in 2021. “Unfortunately, we fell to Hand, so our goal coming into the game was that we had to get that back if we want to move up to the next level.

“We had to beat the team that beat us last year.”

St. Bernard did move up to Division I in the Eastern Connecticut Conference and Division II at the state level.

Similien said the Saints have learned to be unrelenting.

“I feel like last year we were a team that got a good lead and then they came back, we got comfortable,” Similien said. “But this year Mark emphasized putting teams out early. We put (Hand) out early and kept our foot on the next thing.

“It felt great to beat them. It was a great revenge game for us. We know we have a great team. We have all of our guys coming back. Hand lost some guys, but they’re a great team, as well. It was just a good game all-around.”

Jones said he feels like St. Bernard has more than one star, maybe several of them. He believes the team is buying into the fact that not one player has to do everything. Similiien seconds that notion.

“I love our chemistry this year,” Similien said. “Everybody really wants to win. We got Ryan Outlow from Ledyard, he’s a dog. We got Amyre (Gray), he’s a dog ... everybody on our team is dogs and that’s what’s good about it.”

At one point, to start the fourth quarter, the big man Marshall got a defensive rebound and raced down the floor with the ball, bypassing one Hand defender, then spinning through two more under the basket to score.

Jones called Marshall’s overall effort “unbelievable,” saying he encourages the sophomore to be aggressive with the ball.

“They’re locked and zeroed in right now,” Jones said. “They’re playing well. They just got to keep going. We’ve got to keep getting better. Our goal at the end of the season is to win a state championship. To do that, we’ve got to get better every single day.

“Daniel Hand’s a really good team. Our kids came out focused and played well. They wanted it tonight. I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

v.fulkerson@theday.com