LAWRENCE – Even as the Central Catholic lead ballooned to 20 in Friday night’s Division 1 state tourney opener against Natick, something was not right.
Call it rust from a long stretch of 10 days between games, top-seeded Central wasn’t exactly itself, and No. 32 Natick called the Raiders on it, shredding the margin to six with the basketball deep in the fourth.
A couple of well-meant timeouts by coach Mark Dunham, a timely charge drawn by Nizeah Castillo, two Elkin Pena free throws and a nice finish from Javi Lopez finally put the scrappy Red Hawks away as Central advanced to the Round of 16 with a 77-68 victory.
“We stayed on through it. Challenges and adversity will come by you. You just have to learn to keep fighting through it,” said the sophomore Pena.
“We stayed prepared, we practiced every day. We were prepared for everything. Yeah, it’s tough, but our coach prepares us, and we stayed straight in practice.”
Still, practice is practice. Games are a different animal. And tourney games? Well, the Raiders know they got their wakeup call and survived.
Tuesday night, back here on Hampshire Street, Central faces the challenge of No. 17 St. John’s of Shrewsbury for a slot in the D-1 state quarterfinals.
“There’s no looking ahead here. Just keep going forward, one game at a time,” said Pena. “We’ll be ready.”
Lopez, with 27 points, and Pena, who had 26, had their way most of the night, working off the dribble with an array of drives, for which Natick could not locate an answer.
“Javi and I, when we drive in, we look to put our shoulders down, go up into (the defense) and look for a foul,” Pena said.
With Natick often left to either foul or be scored upon, the Raiders went to the foul line 31 times in the win, canning 20 of those.
At 71-65 Central in the final 90 seconds, Castillo stood his ground just outside the paint, absorbing a hard Natick drive for the charge call right in the chops.
Pena then got hacked and made a pair, pushing the margin to eight before a Lopez drive-and-scoop sealed the deal a bit later than the Raiders might have hoped for.
Central Catholic 77, Natick 68
Division 1 Round of 32
Central Scorers: Javi Lopez 27, Elkin Pena 26, Jordan Marion 7, Nizeah Castillo 5, Jeremiah Almanzar 4, Ademola Ajao 4, Drew O’Keefe 3, Brody Dick 1
Records: CC 19-2, Natick 11-1