Woumn lowers the boom on Central

LOWELL – Central Catholic head coach Rick Nault put it best when describing Ryan Woumn’s efforts against his team on Sunday in the Division 1 North championship at Tsongas Arena: “He’s sensational.”Those two words, simple as they were, accurately described how the Northeastern Conference North MVP performed on the big stage for the first time.Woumn led all scorers with 25 points and added six steals, five rebounds and two assists as the Bulldogs shocked the reigning Division 1 state champions, 71-60, to send the program to TD BankNorth Garden for the first time on Tuesday (7:45) against unbeaten Brockton.”It feels pretty good right now,” Woumn said. “I think this was one of our better games of the year offensively and defensively.”The 6-2 junior guard was the ringleader of a defense that forced the Raiders into 30 turnovers and never allowed Central to take the lead at any point in the game.”Those turnovers had a lot to do with their defense,” Nault said. “They made us play a hectic, helter-skelter game. We’re a veteran team that usually takes care of the ball, but it didn’t look like that (Sunday).”Woumn was a man possessed on Sunday as he put the Bulldogs on his back in the second half and practically carried them over the finish line.”Ryan has been my captain for two years now and he showed it (Sunday),” English coach Buzzy Barton said. “He does it all. He said he was going to be the leader of our team and he showed it (Sunday).”How good was Woumn down the stretch? Eighteen of his 25 points came in the second half, many of them in the paint against Central’s 6-10 junior center, Carson Desrosiers.Three times in the third quarter, Woumn knifed his way down the lane and threw up a floater over the Raiders’ man in the middle. All three times, those shots touched nothing but nylon.The strategy, however, was something that the English coaches had preached to Woumn during the game and again at halftime.”The game plan was to try and get Carson in foul trouble,” Woumn said. “At the half, Coach kept saying to be aggressive. Don’t settle. Keep attacking. And that’s what we did.”With that strategy working, English also pinned its hopes on its pressure defense, a hallmark of the Bulldogs all season. And when Central had cut a 16-point deficit to only five, the Bulldogs didn’t panic and were able to use several critical steals to stem the tide.”I never felt like the game was slipping away,” Woumn said. “This game is about runs and we knew they’d make one.”