RallyNorth.net

Central regroups at Andover

Tuesday, January, 28 By Jeff Hamrick

ANDOVER – Playing on a rival’s hostile court isn’t the ideal way to rebound from one of the program’s biggest upset losses in even the longest of memories.

But that’s what faced visiting Central Catholic, which was trying to put a one-point defeat at Tewksbury last week in the rear-view mirror.

And despite being held to only two points for almost the entire third quarter, the Raiders returned to the win column Tuesday night with a 50-44 victory over Andover. It was the second time in three wins this season Central held the Raiders to fewer than 50 points.

An Xavier McKenzie three with 2:27 left in the second gave Central a 30-14 lead, and the Raiders looked like they had recovered from their four-point fourth quarter against Tewksbury – the second quarter in four games Central had been held to five points or fewer.

Andover regrouped, however, with an Aidan Cammann put back, and it was all Golden Warriors for the next 10 minutes as they pounced with a 25-2 run that provided a 39-34 lead.

Junior Nate Godin yanked the Raiders out of the deep freeze though with a buzzer-beating half-court shot that banked in as time-expired in the third.

“That was a big one I guess,” said Godin, who had a three-pointer in each quarter en route to 12 points. “But I don’t really work on that, so I can’t really take credit. I just stayed confident … I know no matter how many I miss, I just have to keep shooting. I know they’ll eventually fall.”

Central, which earned a postseason berth with its 10th win in 14 outings, rode another Godin three to start the fourth to jump back into the lead. A couple free throws by Kyler Rocker gave Andvoer its final advantage at 41-40 with 5:28 remaining.

“One half is pretty good and the next half isn’t,” said Central coach John Walsh, who starts two sophomores and a freshman. “It happened again tonight. We had 32 at the half … and for all intents and purposes we scored two points in the third quarter. I don’t think many people realize how young we are. So, I’m proud of them. I’m hoping we can build off this and take a step forward.”

A closing 10-1 run for Central helped Walsh’s optimism. Sophomore Isaac Bonilla nailed a couple three’s as he also scored all 12 points on treys. Freshman Marcus Rivera only scored four points, but he hauled in six of his 10 rebounds in the game’s final four minutes.

“They’re zone gave us a lot of trouble,” Godin said. “But we just stuck to running our offense and staying calm. We’re just trying to win games.”

Rocker paced Andover (8-6) with a game-high 20 points, but he was held to only three free throws during a fourth quarter in which the Warriors were held to five points on 1-of-12 shooting.

“It should’ve been a win,” Andover coach David Fazio said. “We just have to keep grinding. We have time. That half-court shot (by Godin) killed us. We’re no where near where we’re supposed to be, but we’re getting there.”