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.)
McClelland Miscellanea 
