RallyNorth.net

Never-say-die Central finds a way

Thursday, March, 05 By Hector Longo
Staff writer

READING — Down 1 with 5.9 seconds left and the opposition's top player on the foul line?

You're just not supposed to win.

Tell that to Billy Marsden. The Central Catholic senior hauled in Jerome Cohen's miss, turned to head up court and was fouled.

For a guy who's made the acrobatic to near-impossible look easy with tourney games on the line, foul shots are a snap, even with 2,500 screaming fans peering down on you.

"At the line, it's the same shot no matter how often you take it," said Marsden, who calmly swished a pair with :04.1 on the clock and made two more a second later after an Everett turnover, lifting Central to a wild 47-44 Division 1 North semifinal win.

"It's not like there's someone in your face, no defense, no leaning, just a regular shot. And I practice those all the time."

The victory sent the defending state champs to a fourth straight North title appearance, sixth in the last seven years. Sunday night (7 p.m.) at Tsongas Arena, the top-seeded Raiders will tangle with No. 3 Lynn English for a ticket to the Garden.

"I feel a little bit guilty, I feel like we stole one," said a relieved coach Rick Nault after his team survived 25 turnovers in an absolute meat-grinder of a game. "We're not a great offensive team. We win because we play pretty good defense. There was no doubt in our guys that they were going to pull this one out."

Central had plenty of opportunity to second-guess itself, what with plodding Everett dictating the pace and carrying the lead from the opening tip deep into the fourth.

A Luis Puello free throw gave Central its first lead of the night, 41-40, with 3:48 left to play. When Marsden plucked a steal and found Carson Desrosiers ahead of the pack for a ferocious two-handed slam, it appeared Central might finally hit its stride.

But deliberate and dangerous Everett wasn't done.

The Tide answered with a pair of hoops to grab the lead back at 44-43 with 1:48 to go.

From there, neither team could find the hoop.

Central turned it over twice and missed a pair of jumpers. Meanwhile, Everett answered with a violation, a Desrosiers-altered miss and back-to-back missed front ends of the one-and-one, the second of which was terminal when the basketball finally found Big Shot Billy.

Trailing by as many as seven in a 24-20 first half, Central truly was fortunate to be hanging around.

The Tide surrounded Desrosiers and face-guarded Marsden, leaving the scoring in everyone else's hands for the most part.

With points at a premium, Nault got three huge hoops from senior Tim Wheeler, a fearless seven from the frosh Puello and four of five free throws out of Michael Garcia.

The contributions were just enough to keep Central involved until Desrosiers cranked up the shot-swatter and Marsden willed his way to 17 second-half points, a game-high 20 overall.

Desrosiers, who filled out his triple-double with 13 rebounds and 12 blocks, made just five of 12 shots for 11 points. With six fourth-quarter blocks, he simply shut Everett down.

"Defensively, he just takes everything away," said Nault. "Not just the blocks, but every rebound and he changes so many shots."

Now 23-1, Central gets two days to prepare of Lynn English, which knocked off No. 2 Lexington, 74-69, last night.