RallyNorth.net

Thu, Dec 23, 2010 07:45 PM @ Lawrence

Team	1	2	3	4	Final
Central Catholic	15	13	19	22	69
Lawrence	15	11	15	15	56

The Zen Master: Zenevitch scores 31 points as Raiders trip Lawrence

Thursday, December, 23 By Michael Muldoon
Staff writer

LAWRENCE — Jimmy Zenevitch won't lie.

Unlike the pros, who at least claim they don't read the papers and websites, he reads everything.

And he doesn't like some of the stuff he was reading about himself. So he did something about it.

To the tune of an eye-popping 31 points and 21 rebounds. He carried Central Catholic past Lawrence last night, 69-56, in their much-hyped first-round Greater Lawrence Christmas Tourney matchup before a big crowd at Lawrence High.

"Coach put up quotes from the blogs that really motivated me," admitted the 6-7 senior from Methuen. "They were constantly ripping on me."

We'll assume the screen name wasn't ricknbbcoach but Raiders coach Rick Nault couldn't have done a better job motivating his Assumption-bound big man.

Even ex-Central great Carson Desrosiers, who was on hand from his break at Wake Forest, seemed mighty impressed.

This was billed as the "unofficial championship game," but Andover hopes to have something to say about that in the semifinals Tuesday night.

"It's a shame it was in the first round," said Nault. "Any time you play Lawrence, it's special."

A lot of people around the MVC thought Lawrence might be able to hand the defending Division 1 state champion Raiders their first loss to a conference foe in almost three years (Lowell 61, Central 53 on Jan. 16, 2008) 

To do it, the hyper-quick Lancer guards would have to put up big numbers. But Central (4-0) counters with some lock-down defenders in Luis Puello and Jaycob Morales.

 "Our practice is 75 percent defense," said Nault. "Our goal was to hold Jaylen (Alicea, a returnig Eagle-Tribune All-Star) to 20 points. It all starts with Luis."

Alicea could never get untracked and finished with 11 points. Yadoris Arias led the Lancers (2-1) with 14 points.

Lawrence sprung a press on the Raiders midway through the third quarter and that helped the Lancers go on a 7-0 run to take a 36-33 lead. Dawrin Pereyra hit a corner 3-pointer and scored after an Arias steal. Alison Cueto sank two free throws to cap the run.

But Zenevitch converted a 3-point play and Tyler Nelson swished 3-pointer and a long jumper from the corner to spark an 8-2 run. 

Nelson had eight big points in the third as the Raiders took a 47-42 lead.

If you told somebody the 5-foot-9 Nelson was a star athlete, their first reaction would undoubtedly be: what's his record at 103 pounds.

But the freshman from Bradford is no wrestler, he's a baby-faced, shooting savant.

"The kid has a certain moxie," said Nault. "This environment, this rivalry and to make that impact, it says a lot about his confidence." 

 Lawrence kept it close (52-49 with 6:04 left) but winning time was Zenevitch time, who had 14 in the fourth.

The Zen Master hit a free throw, tipped in his own miss, showed some surprising dexterity on a drive to the hoop and used his soft hands to grab a long pass for a layup.

That final hoop made it 64-54 with 2:21 left.

A straight shooter on and off the court, Zenevitch said, "We've been talking about this since Day 1."

The Lancers were left wondering if they might have let one slip away.

"It was a battle. We just didn't box out," said Cueto.  "We're a better team (than we showed). We'll meet them two more times and we'll be looking for a W."