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Central atones for last year's lone loss

Sunday, January, 30 By Jeff Hamrick

LAWRENCE — Despite winning last year’s Division 1 state championship, Central Catholic figured it still had some unfinished business.

The Raiders went 26-1 a year ago and was just 18 seconds away from an undefeated season. However, Bishop Hendricken rallied from a four-point deficit to claim a 61-60 victory in an early Feb. matchup between the two perennial New England powers.

Yesterday, Central made the visiting Hawks pay, streaking to a 12-point lead less than 6 minutes into the game before cruising to a 69-44 win over the seven-time defending Rhode Island state titlists. It was the Raiders 10th straight victory and their 23rd in the 24 games since losing to the Hawks last year.

“The only things in our heads all week was payback,” said junior guard Luis Puello, who finished with 13 points and four assists. “That was our only loss of the season, and we wanted to get them back.”

Undersized Bishop Hendricken (9-4) opened the game in a zone, trying to contain Central’s 6-foot-7 center Jimmy Zenevitch, but the Raiders scored points on each of their first six possessions. Puello hit a couple of jumpers in the opening stretch. With Zenevitch making sharp passes from the middle of the court, Central (14-1) also had little difficulty against the Hawks’ full-court press.

“It forced us to play more of a mental game,” Puello said. “But we’re prepared for that. We’ve been battling presses all season. When they played that little 1-3-1 (zone), we just passed the ball and kicked it to teammates. Teams can press all they want and we’re going to find a way to beat them.”

Not only did they knock down their first five shots, the Raiders’ pressuring man defense also forced the Hawks into turnovers on five of their first seven possessions and 11 of their 17 possessions in the first quarter. For the game, the Bishop Hendricken turned over the ball 29 times while making only 13 of its 44 field-goal attempts.

Central’s five starters outscored the Hawks’ five 49-16.

“For us it starts at Day 1,” said Central coach Rick Nault, who added his team’s goal is to force 18 turnovers a game. “When I started here five years ago, I said we’re going to change how we play defensively, and we’ve done that. We’ve been very successful, and we’re possibly going for our fifth straight league championship Friday night (against Lawrence). We hang our hat on our defense, and as a result we get some offense off it.”

Although Central had stretches of its own when it had difficulty handling the ball — turnovers on five of their final seven possessions of the first quarter and 12 in the second half, the Raiders had little difficulty opening leads of 17 points in the first half and 27 midway through the third quarter.

Zenevitch finished with a game-high 21 points and added eight rebounds.