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Central Catholic Raiders Boys Basketball '08-'09

Fri, Jan 09, 2009 07:30 PM @ Lawrence
Team 1 2 3 4 Final
Central Catholic 14 13 18 19 64
Lawrence 3 19 10 10 42

Central grinds to seventh straight win

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Friday, January, 09 By Hector Longo
Staff writer

LAWRENCE - To say that Lawrence High failed to take advantage of a sluggish Central Catholic start would be understating things more than just a little.

With Central stuck in neutral early, the Lancer offense locked down in reverse.

By the time the unbeaten Raiders, the consensus No. 1 in Eastern Mass.,  found low gear in the second quarter, the Lancers were in a deep hole that turned out to be inescapable as Central chewed out victory No. 7, 64-42.

"Some of it was Lawrence, and some of it was us, just coming out flat," said Raider coach Rick Nault. "Offensively, we were out of synch, throwing the ball all over the place, just careless."

Lawrence, now 4-3, outdefended, outscrapped and outhustled Central in the first quarter and had a 14-3 deficit to show for it. The Lancers hit just one of 16 field goal tries and one of seven free throws in the quarter.

Effort was never an issue for Lawrence, which finally saw a couple shots fall in the second. Allison Cueto's three-point play at the halftime buzzer sliced the Raider margin to five at 27-22.

Championship teams don't panic, even when their All-Scholastic guard (Billy Marsden) gets sick in the locker room at intermission.

The Raiders just found answers, this time in the likes of reserve guards Michael Alvarez (season high 12 points) and Luis Puello (6).

Junior Carson Desrosiers knocked in seven of his game-high 15 as the Raiders extended in the third, scoring the knockout blow two minutes into the final frame when a Marsden three pushed the advantage to 52-32.

"At halftime Billy was woosy, he just didn't look like himself," said Nault. "Michael Alvarez was key tonight. He's been a little more assertive, playing with a little more confidence, and this is Lawrence. It's a big game for him.
"Last year we had Walson (Constant) and KB (Oshodi)to give us some energy and some points of the bench. If he can continue to do that for us, it will be big."

Desrosiers drew a crowd all night long and delivered a workmanlike 12 rebounds with six blocks and a pair of steals. Marsden finished with a dozen on only 4 of 7 shooting.

Antonio Jones Jason Pimentel had seven apiece for the offensively-starved Lancers.

 

Game Statistics:

Central (64):  Cam Wroblewski 0 0-2 0 , Andrew Ouellette 1 0-0 2, Michael Alvarez 5 2-2 12, Luis Puello 3 0-2 6, Billy Marsden 4 1-2 12, Brandon Curley 1 0-0 2, Michael Garcia 0 2-2 2, Benny Fernandez 1 5-5 7, Jimmy Zenevitch 2 0-1 4, Zak Adamopoulos 1 0-0 2, Carson Desrosiers 5 4-6 15, Totals 23 14-22 64

Lawrence (42): Kadeem Perez 0 1-2 1, Allison Cueto 1 1-1 3, Jaylen Alicea 3 0-5 6, Justin Nieves 2 0-0 5, Rodolfo Tejeda 0 0-2 0, Jesse Hiraldo 1 1-2 3, Antonio Jones 1 5-6 7, Jose Berroa 2 0-0 4, Jason Pimentel 2 3-4 7, Anthony DeJesus 3 0-1 6, Totals 15 11-23 42

3-pointers:  CC - Marsden 3, Desrosiers; L - Nieves

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