Tag Archives: Central Catholic High School

February 21, 2011 · 11:35 pm

Central Catholic Routs Lynn English in the Second Half 88-62 to Win the TD Bank Board 130 Basketball Classic

Central Catholic’s co-captains Luis Puello and Jimmy Zenevitch pose after receiving the championship trophy.

Evan Sheehan (#22) buried five three-point shots.

(Lawrence) Suppose you went to a basketball game and a track meet broke out. That sure seemed to be what happened at Central Catholic as the Raiders and the visiting Lynn English Bulldogs met in the finals of the TD Bank Board 130 Basketball Classic.

I try to script every game I cover and whenever I get one like the Central Catholic/Lynn English game it makes me wonder why. There was some thought that maybe the referees called a lot of fouls because they needed a break!

Central Catholics (19-1) prevailed, 88-62, in a misleading final score. Lynn English (18-2) was only behind 52-46 with two minutes left in the 3rd quarter.

The next 2 ½ minutes did in the Bulldogs as the Raiders tallied sixteen points during their next eight possessions while LE had only a Keandre Stanton layup to show for the same number of opportunities.

In an attempt to slow down the Bulldog offense, the Raiders switched away from their usual man-to-man defense and used an active zone instead in the second half. It worked like a charm. LE couldn’t gear down to patiently attack the CC zone and had just two second-chance opportunities the entire second half.

The Raiders ran after rebounds and created many high-percentage looks as fatigue set in on the visitors. The result was a great run of productive offense sending CC in front 68-48 with 7 ½ minutes remaining in the game and coupled with LE’s top scorer (Travonne Berry-Rogers) fouling out made for a show-time finish for the Raiders in front of a nice holiday crowd.

Assumption-bound Jimmy Zenevitch – tourney MVP

Jimmy Zenevitch (20 points) had several dunks while Evan Sheehan (21 points) punched his ticket to the All-Tourney team with yet another three.

It was the pace of the game that caught my attention. Hadn’t these two teams just played twenty-four hours ago? Didn’t seem to matter especially to Lynn English. At times they had four defenders in the backcourt harassing CC dribblers and intercepting passes.

CC gave Lynn English fits in the frontcourt by getting into passing lanes.

The turnovers stats (25 for each team) were gruesome. Maybe it was fatigue but both teams rolled up steals on each other at an alarming rate.

CC may have won by 26 points but you couldn’t have envisioned that sort of outcome watching the second period.

The Bulldogs’ all-out defensive attack worked to perfection and a 24-16 CC lead disappeared as LE put together a 15-2 stretch that left the home team behind, 31-26.

However, despite having ten turnovers in the second period alone, CC was able to rally back late on five points from Doug Gemmell and get a 38-37 halftime lead.

Central Catholic’s ball management was suspect but its shooting was a consistent 50% in both halves (13-for-26 & 20-for-40).

One huge advantage for CC was their ability to hit the open shots that LE’s never-ending trapping occasionally made available. Evan Sheehan took full advantage of the open looks that came his way.

From the How-Can-It-Be Department: Evan got fouled on the last long-shot he attempted in the 4th quarter and proceeded to miss all three free throws.

Travonne Berry-Rogers (#11) – held scoreless in the second half.

Travonne Berry-Rogers (16 points) led the Bulldogs scorers but was held scoreless in the second half.

Keandre Stanton had twelve points and several leaping blocks. The Raider defense limited his moves on the offensive end by crowding him when he tried to dribble to get open.

The hero of the Andover game (Jaycob Morales) had all of his eight points in the second half. With Luis Puello limited (bad lower back) Jaycob had more responsibilities getting the ball up the court and running the offense.

Both teams came into this game having avenged their only losses of the season – LE to Salem and CC to Andover.

Central Catholic plays St. John’s at Danvers on Wednesday night. I can’t imagine the Raiders rolling up 88 points against them on the road. If they do, then the mystery of which team will come out of the Division 1 North in the tournament has been solved.

I sat with Alfonso Payne who is the assistant men’s basketball coach at Assumption. He was looking forward to having Jimmy Zenevitch on his roster for the next four seasons.

Central Catholic cheerleader toss during pre-game introductions.

Lynn English Stays Undefeated Winning 14th at Beverly 86-56

Ryan Woumn – 29 points via layups and free throws

(Beverly) No question, Lynn English (14-0) is good.

They defeated Beverly (8-6) 86-56 at Beverly on Tuesday night at Beverly to complete a sweep of the Panthers.

I have now seen the Big Three of Division One – St. John’s, Central Catholic, and now Lynn English. St. John’s took their first loss tonight (Catholic Memorial) while both Central Catholic and LE continued undefeated. CC beat Andover.

The Bulldogs weren’t really tested by Beverly so I can’t do a comparison with the other two teams.

That’s not to take anything away from the Beverly effort – there was plenty of it. Before the game, however, I already suspected that they were in trouble when I saw Co-captain Mike Clayton out of uniform. Not many underdogs can do much minus their primary ball handler and his 14 points per game against what Lynn English throws at you.

With LE they got pressure, turnovers, and points in bunches against them. LE pressure led to turnovers (16 for Beverly in the first half).

The Panthers didn’t fold immediately, in fact, trailed just 12-10 with 3 ½ to go in the first period. The beginning of the downhill slide kicked in over the next 5 ½ minutes, however, as good LE fullcourt, trapping defense turned into easy offense with a 14-2 run for the Bulldogs. The LE points came on nothing but layups and free throws. Ryan Woumn (29 points) had four of those layups.

Curtis Manuel (24 points) responded with five in a row, partly on free throws, thanks partially to Travone Berry-Rogers’ unappreciated evaluation of a referee.

Irving Vizciano – 17 points for Lynn English

The rest of the second quarter, I saw other parts to LE’s offense that make them more of a headache to defend. Irving Vizciano (17 points) and Paradise Hogan (6 points) hit three’s.

Just when I thought LE was all about layups and long-range basketball, they started the third quarter with interior passes to sophomore Keandre Stanton (6’6”). He had a collection of moves that got him to the basket and he knew how to finish.

I was disappointed not being able to see 6’5” LE senior Jarell Byrd (6’5”) play. He warmed up but never saw any action. I learned afterwards that he had hurt his ankle versus Marblehead. During warm-ups, he looked ready to play but there never was a need against Beverly.

Jarell didn’t play so I couldn’t get a read on him. Ryan Woumn (6’3” – senior) did play and was also hard to read. He had 29 points but most of them were on breakaway layups and free throws. He did take the ball into traffic to draw fouls.

No question LE has plenty of weapons. With five games left, I like their chances of going undefeated although Brockton (Feb 7th) might have something to say about that.

Looking ahead, wouldn’t it be great to see LE in the MIAA D1 North tournament get into a dream matchup with Central Catholic with both teams entering the game undefeated. Last year the Bulldogs upset CC in the tournament.

( All stats are unofficial. )

Central Catholic struggles vs Lawrence 60-54 but continues undefeated

Carson Desrosiers – The Wake Forest recruit had 20 points and some foul problems against Lawrence.

(Lawrence) It took the Lawrence Lancers (7-4) nine possessions to get their first points but once they got going they gave Central Catholic all they could handle.

But at the end it was CC with a surprisingly tight 60-54 win in Merrimac Valley Conference play on Friday night before a spirited crowd on both sides.

The Raiders (9-0) by winning will stay among the top three in the state in Division One with Lynn English and St. John’s Prep. They face the Eagles in Lawrence on February 17th.

Their gymnasium is loaded with banners describing the many championships they’ve won in all sort of sports.

Of more interest to CC might be their return date with Lawrence (February 5th) at Lawrence High School. You’d have to think that the Lancers would shoot better at their gym then the 33% (22-for-66) they shot at CC.

What made this game interesting was the way Lawrence took the ball at All-American Carson Desrosiers (20 points/12 rebounds/4 blocks). There were some rejections (Carson is 6’11”) but he also got called for fouls. His second foul put him on the bench for a good portion of the second period and Lawrence responded with a rally that got them within three (24-21) at the half.

The Lancers started the second half with six unanswered including a slashing layup by Jaylen Alicea (20 points) and had the lead. CC rallied back but a Dawrin Pereyra three had the teams even at 33 with three minutes left in the third period.

Central Catholic grabbed the lead for good over the next 1 ½ minutes running nine points in a row for a 42-33 advantage. During this decisive segment guard Luis Pulleo (9 points/13 rebounds) converted a miss, Carson drained his only three of the game, Jimmy Zenevitch hit a couple of free throws and Carson clicked on a short jumper. This collection of solid offense was the difference maker. Lawrence hustled its way back to within five a couple of times thereafter but could not get closer. They even got a 4th foul on Carson early in the 4th quarter but it didn’t matter.

Carson appears to play now as he will at the next level. You would imagine that he could dominate inside at the high school level, and he probably could, but he avoids the heavy traffic inside. He doesn’t force his offense and the other CC players pursue their own offense. His greatest value in this game, in my opinion, was being the safety valve in the CC press breaker. This position put him in a position to defend the basket if there was a backcourt turnover.

The Raiders were very good at breaking down the Lawrence defense on the rare occasions when they put two or three passes together. Carson had several dunks at the end of such sequences.

The turnovers committed by a quality team like CC (23 including 11 in the second period) were shocking. The Lancers swarmed nonstop but there were way too many bad passes to make any coach happy.

Jaylen Alicea launches a free throw. The 6′ junior scored 20 points for Lawrence.

The best matchup was easily Luis Pulleo defending Kaylen Alicea and vice versa down the other end. You talk about quickness and althleticism! Luis is a sophomore and Kaylen a junior.

The gym was filled and the crowds seemed to behave as far as I could tell. I wasn’t so sure it was a good idea to have the first row of the CC student section standing right along the sidelines, however.

(All stats are unofficial.)