Central Catholic rises to occasion
Great third quarter wrecks Brockton
Coach Sue Downer called her Central Catholic girls a second-half team Saturday. That may have been an understatement.
After entering halftime with only a 34-33 lead, the Raiders exploded in the third quarter last night, outscoring Brockton, 26-4, and won the Division 1 EMass final, 75-45, at TD Banknorth Garden.
"Obviously I think we could probably say we're a third-quarter team," Downer said after her team improved to 21-3. "You could tell that they couldn't get any offensive rhythm and we were feeding off of that, and we were getting offensive rhythm, and we just kept going with it."
Brockton played with great tempo in the beginning, with junior forward Morgan Thatcher fighting to the hoop inside and notching all 10 of her points in the first quarter. Katie Zenevitch, who was hot for the Raiders, scored 10 in the close first quarter, after which CC led, 21-20.
Although Central Catholic forward Gia O'Connor didn't score until the third quarter, her all-out hustle helped the Raiders throughout.
"I think we played unbelievable on defense," O'Connor said. "Everyone's diving and just going all-out, and I think that's why we won."
In the second quarter, senior guard Beatrice Atkinson stepped up for Brockton. Atkinson, who had 4 points in the first quarter, tacked on 9 in the second (she finished with 15).
Downer decided at the break to change up Central Catholic's defense.
"We went to a box-and-one," said Zenevitch, who had 31 points and 21 rebounds.
"We had one of our guards just out working on one of their best players, and then we just got all the rebounds and stayed straight up in the paint."
Brockton was held to 12 points in the second half.
Sophomore forward Melissa Miller (14 points) and sophomore guard Gabie Polce (13) aided Central Catholic on offense, as well.
"This is an extremely special group of young ladies," Downer said. "They have so many intangibles that coaches just dream of and they're very focused.
"This has been their goal from Day 1. They had some bumps in the road in the beginning [but] I think our whole postseason has been absolutely phenomenal."
Zenevitch agreed, but she wants to take it a step further. The star center won at the Garden her freshman year, but Central Catholic wasn't as lucky in the state championship.
"We went to the [states] and we lost," Zenevitch said.
"And it's not going to happen this time."
