RallyNorth.net

Central pressures Utah visitors

Thursday, December, 16 By Jeff Hamrick

LAWRENCE — A pair of defending state champions squared off last night at Central Catholic High School. Unfortunately for the squad from Utah, only one team featured any returning starters from its title team.

The host Raiders showed off a tough man-to-man defense, easily handling Alta, Utah, for a 54-41 victory. Central (2-0) has three starters back from last year’s Division 1 winners in Jimmy Zenevitch, Jaycob Morales and Luis Puello, who combined for 29 points against the Hawks.

Central pressured Alta (1-3) with a man-to-man defense that forced 21 turnovers — 12 in the first half — and made Alta work from the perimeter much of the game.

“That’s been our trademark,” Central coach Rick Nault said. “This is my fifth year here now, and when I came in I said we’d really try to defend the basketball, and I think we’ve done that. People may say that in the past we had the 6-foot-11 kid (Carson Desrosiers) in the middle to take everything away, and that was true. But now I think we can show it wasn’t just all him.”

Forcing six turnovers on Alta’s first seven possessions, Central ran out to a 10-0 lead and led by as many as 19 midway through the second quarter. The Raiders also did a great job on the boards, corralling 12 offensive rebounds

“We don’t have a shot clock (in Utah),” Alta coach Jim Barker said. “I don’t think it hurt us too bad. The possessions it hurt us were ones we were already having trouble handling the pressure ... We started the game with our point guards getting kind of shaky from the get go. If they can’t stay calm and handle the pressure, it’s going to be a long game no matter what. We just didn’t handle the pressure very well.”

The Raiders also showed off its depth, using 13 players in the first 13 minutes and 10 players eventually had at least one field goal.

“I think we have a lot of guys fighting for minutes and a spot in the rotation,” Nault said. “Right now we’re just trying to find who’s going to help us as we go through the season. We’re fortunate to have a lot of good players. We’re just trying to find the right pieces to get it all to work.”

Zenevitch, who finished with a game-high 16 points and 11 rebounds, helped the Raiders grab a 21-point lead with 2 minutes left in the third quarter before a 7-0 run that lasted into the fourth helped the Hawks make it more respectable.

The Hawks flew into Boston yesterday afternoon, spending the night at an airport hotel. Yesterday the players visited Lexington and Concord with plans to walk the Freedom Trail and a trip to the Basketball Hall of Fame upcoming and some players even plan on watching the Patriots play Chicago Sunday night at Gillette Stadium.