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Central Catholic's boys pulled away with an 18-8 second quarter and extended its 33-23 halftime lead in the third quarter before holding off Lawrence, 60-50. Tyler Nelson led the Raiders with 21 points.

Tyler Nelson (21 points, two 3-pointers), Nick Cambio (17 points) and Alec Buresh (14 points, four 3-pointers) helped end Central Catholic's three-game losing skid. The Raiders routed Tewksbury 80-42. 

Facts about Central vs. Andover: 

Before last night: Central had won 22 of the last 23 meetings dating back to Jan. 6, 2006

The loss in that span: 2010 Christmas Tourney semis (55-52 on 12-28-10); prior to that CC had beat Warriors 14 straight; then beat them four times in 2014, twice in 2012 and twice in 2011 

MEDFORD — One year after taking St. Anthony’s to the limit, it appeared as if Central Catholic was upping its game against the perennial national high school power last night.
 With Tyler Nelson spurring an early charge, the Raiders jumped on St. Anthony’s, leading by as many as 10 early in the second quarter. But the Friars from Jersey City calmly took charge after intermission, riding Central’s unforced errors to a comfortable 62-46 victory at the Shooting Touch Shootout at Tufts University.
 “I think it was a tale of two different games for us,” Central coach Rick Nault said. “I thought the way we approached things defensively and the intensity we played with in the first half was very different than the intensity and effort we put out in the second half.”
 Nelson, playing his second game of the season, continued the hot hand he showed off against Pinkerton in the Commonwealth Motors Christmas Tournament semis on Saturday when he scored 21 points and made 9 of his last 10 shots.
 Last night, the returning Eagle-Tribune MVP came out smoking, nailing six of his eight shots while scoring 15 of Central’s 19 first-quarter points. He had 17 while guiding the Raiders to a 23-13 advantage with 5:19 left in the second.
 “The fact Tyler was hitting some tough shots in the first half carried us offensively,” Nault said. “And that was a big factor why were up the way we were. The truth is he’s going to get 24 points like he did tonight but we need our next two best players Aaron Hall and Nick Cambio to step up and put up some numbers as well.”
 While Nelson cooled off a bit, Hall and Cambio never got untracked offensively, scoring eight points each.
The Raiders also stumbled after intermission, racking up eight turnovers in the third and 13 in the half. The sloppy ball handling helped St. Anthony’s (3-0) score 17 of the first 21 points in the third to open a 10-point lead 45-35.
 “A thing tonight was our inexperience at guard,” Nault said. “We started a freshman (Kevin Fernandez) and a sophomore (Alex Buresh) in the backcourt. This was Alex’ first start, and the inexperience showed tonight with some tough turnovers, but that’s part of the growing pains with starting kids like that, and it will help us in the long run.”
 Despite not playing with a shot clock in New Jersey, the Friars, who won the 2012 MaxPreps national championship, looked very comfortable under the pressure of dwindling possession time.
 “Once we got the lead in the fourth quarter I thought we did a very good job of taking time off the clock and still getting a pretty good shot each time,” said St. Anthony’s coach Bob Hurley, a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield who has over 1,050 career wins.
“We don’t have (the shot clock) but we kind of worked on it so we would know what we want to do with 10 seconds left on the clock.”
 Central (3-1) can’t bemoan the loss with tonight’s Commonwealth Conference Bob Licare Division championship matchup against Andover. Golden Warrior coach David Fazio was on hand at Tufts last night.
 “We intentionally didn’t run anything tonight knowing who was in the stands watching,” Nault said of having Fazio in attendance. “So we were very mellow on offense tonight, and that was done intentionally ... One of our goals every season is to try to win the Christmas tournament championship. We wanted to play in this game, but we have to make sure we’re ready to go (tonight).”

St. Anthony’s 62, Central Catholic 46
St. Anthony’s (62): Cheddi Mosely 6 0-0 15, Jagan Mosely 1 2-24, Tarin Smith 3 4-4 10, Markis McDuffue 6 1-2 13, Idris Joyner 4 0-0 8, Shaquille McFarlan 5 1-1 12, Mohamed Mills 0 0-0 0, Shyquan Gibbs 0 0-0 0, Jimmy Panzini 0 0-0 0, Eddy Dominguez 0 0-0 0. Totals 25 8-9 62
Central Catholic (46): Tyler Nelson 10 0-0 24, Alex Buresh 1 0-0 2, Kevin Fernandez 0 0-0 0, Aaron Hall 4 0-0 8, Nick Cambio 2 4-4 8, A.J. Pettway 0 0-0 0, Anthony Crespo 1 0-0 2, John Homsey 1 0-0 2, Ryan Rondeau 0 0-0 0, Brian Triglione 0 0-0 0. Totals 19 4-4 46
3-pointers: SA — C.Mosely 3, McFarlan; CC — Nelson 4
St. Anthony’s (3-0):     13 15 21 13 — 62
Central Catholic (3-1):     19 12  7  8 — 46

NORTH ANDOVER — The “will he or won’t he?” question was answered definitively.

Yes, it turned out, reigning Eagle-Tribune MVP Tyler Nelson did indeed make his long-awaited season debut for Central Catholic.

LAWRENCE — A week-long war of words on Twitter hit the hardwood on what felt a lot more like a March night here at the Memorial Gymnasium.

And much like we see in March, Central Catholic is nearly infallible on its home floor. Without injured Tyler Nelson, the Raiders controlled Methuen from start to finish in a 58-43 victory.

LAWRENCE — A week-long war of words on Twitter hit the hardwood on what felt a lot more like a March night here at the Memorial Gymnasium.

And much like we see in March, Central Catholic is nearly infallible on its home floor. Without injured Tyler Nelson, the Raiders controlled Methuen from start to finish in a 58-43 victory.