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Desrosiers, Central wear down Prep in Classic

LAWRENCE - "Top five, I'd say. I don't know, though, he's put up some great ones."

Who was going to argue with Central Catholic coach Rick Nault's assessment after his horse, Carson Desrosiers, delivered a memorable 24-point, 18-rebound, 13-block, six assist performance?

The Wake Forest-bound Desrosiers needed all that and some gritty work from his teammates as Central fought off St. John's Prep, 65-61, before a standing room crowd of about 2,000 here last night at Memorial Gym.

With the win, Central moves to 20-1, locking down one of the top two seeds in the upcoming Division 1 North tournament and assuring that any encounter with defending EMass champion Lynn English wouldn't happen until the sectional final.

The Prep attacked, from the opening tip, ratcheting up the intensity from volatile to combustible in a building that was near capacity 45 minutes before the tip.

"Any team that's 18-1 coming in, shouldn't be afraid," said Nault. "They're a talented team, well-coached. And (Prep junior Pat Connaughton) is outstanding. We threw our best defensive players at him with Carson sitting on him too and it seemed like it didn't matter."

Connaughton, with a game-high 26 on 11 of 18 shooting, commanded greatness from Desrosiers, and like the blue-chipper he is, Carson answered with authority.

"The last few minutes, we went to him on every trip," said Nault, whose club battled back from 57-53 down with under four minutes to play.

Jaycob Morales found a wide-open Jimmy Zenevitch under the hoop for two. Desrosiers then cleared a miss,and led Zenevitch too far.

Somehow, falling out of bounds behind the backboard, Zenevitch turned "Mr. Fantastic," stretching and reaching back into the court for a scintillating scoop that dropped in softly to tie.

"I think he hit it from the stage," said one of the hundreds of "Central Crazies" in the Raider student section.

The extension was mind-boggling, setting up a frenetic final 90 seconds that belonged to Desrosiers.

 He muscled on the baseline for two, then after two Connaughton free throws, skied for an offensive rebound hoop that blew the roof off the place with :34.2 seconds to go.

Connaughton tried to answer but was denied by Desrosiers' unlucky 13th swat and again by Zenevitch from three-point land.

The Raiders put the ball in Desrosiers hands the rest of the way, and the 6-foot-11 center drained four of six from the line to kick-start the party.

Zenevitch was solid, back to his pre-ankle injury form with 19 points, including a runaway two-hand slam. Evan Sheehan (8 points) and Andrew Ouellette (7) were huge off the bench.

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• Desrosiers, Central wear down Prep in Classic