RallyNorth.net

Zenevitch powers Raiders ... once again

Wednesday, February, 27 By Mike Muldoon
Sports editor

A pull-up jumper from the wing, crashing the boards down low, even tossing sharp passes to break a trap | Katie Zenevitch did it all for Central Catholic in its 74-48 romp over Lynn English in the opening round of the Division 1 North tournament.

It's nothing new for the 6-foot-2 center, who is averaging 16.8 points over her last 10 games. The sophomore had a whopping 24 rebounds and added 15 points.

Zenevitch was battling for rebounds for much of the night with the Bulldogs' 5-foot-11 center Jeanette Anderson, including when both players went hard to the floor after a loose ball. Zenevitch yanked the ball away and fed a teammate while sprawled on the floor to send the Raiders up court.

Zenevitch said she was prouder with the win than the numbers she's been putting up recently.

"We won, so I'm happy," she said, smiling widely. "If I have a bad game and we win, then I'm still happy. We're moving on, that's all that matters."

To go along with her monster numbers, Zenevitch was a key part of breaking the Bulldogs' press. Taking the ball off the inbound, she sprung Gia O'Connor twice for fast-break points (O'Connor had 11 points), and also sent Gabie Polce flying down the floor for two of her nine points. It seemed that anytime Zenevitch had the ball in the backcourt, the Raiders had a mismatch down the other end of the floor that she would exploit.

"We knew of their press and how much pressure they can apply off of it," said Central head coach Susan Downer. "Having Katie in the middle really broke it open.

"We were running drills with six forwards against five defenders to get ready for it. We had the girls passing a lot, because it's not something you can dribble through. We worked a lot on ball movement, and having Katie in the middle was a big piece in breaking their trap open. She's so big she's able to use her vision."

Trailing 15-13 after the first quarter, the Raiders netted the first 10 points of the second. About a minute in, Polce hit a jumper after a feed from Zenevitch to put the Raiders up 17-15, and they never trailed the rest of the way. Polce and O'Connor combined for 20 points off the bench.

"Our bench came up huge tonight," said Downer. "We weren't really hitting a lot of shots early, but Gabie and Gia go in there for us and start shooting real well and that got us going. Kelley (Mikus) was another one that shot well for us. It was a good win, and now we move on."

Moving on will only get tougher from here on in for the 14-7 Raiders, who made the state final last winter. They'll travel to Acton-Boxboro to take on the top-seeded, 18-2 Colonials on Friday night.

A-B, which received a first-round bye, shouldn't be overconfident as Central is red hot, including a season-ending win over Archbishop Williams, which was ranked No. 1 in Eastern Mass.