Prep can’t find an answer to Central Catholic’s size

BOSTON – There were simply too many trees inside the TD Garden last night ? too many for St. John’s Prep to navigate.Between 6-11 senior Carson Desrosiers and his 6-7 junior teammate Jim Zenevitch, Central Catholic dispatched the Eagles, 74-62, Friday night to win the Division 1 North boys basketball championship.The Raiders, who lost in the final last year to English, will return to the Garden Monday to face Madison Park in the state semifinal.”He’s just too tall, he has big legs, and he’s tough to move out of there,” said The Prep’s Pat Connaughton, who fouled out in his attempts to match wits with the Wake Forest-bound Desrosiers. “It’s impossible to play good defense on him without fouling him.””They just had too many weapons,” Prep coach Sean Connolly said. “And they got it from everyone tonight. Their guards stepped up and made some big shots.”But it was Desrosiers and Zenevitch who did most of the damage. Zenevitch led all scorers with 21 points while Desrosiers had 16.The game, which wasn’t as intense as the one between the two teams two weeks ago in Lawrence, was one in which the Raiders kept running away ?. with The Prep catching up.The Eagles did that on three separate occasions – the last time to close out the third quarter.Midway through the quarter, it looked as if the Eagles were finished. Central had taken a 45-30 lead on Luis Puello’s three-pointer, and the Eagles were clearly struggling.But after a timeout, McKenzie Burt (19 points) hit a three-pointer, and that sparked a quarter-closing run that saw The Prep chop the lead down to two – 54-52 – at the horn.And when Connaughton (18 points) connected on the first play of the third quarter to tie it, the huge crowd at the Garden settled in for a long, tense fourth quarter.But it never happened. An 8-0 Central run followed that shot the Raiders into a 62-54 lead, the Eagles couldn’t respond a third time.”We said between the quarters that we weren’t going to lose this game,” said Desrosiers.”We talked all week about how we weren’t just going to be happy to be here,” said Central coach Rick Nault. “We weren’t going to get all hung up with the Leprechaun and the parquet. We were going to win.”St. John’s never threatened after that, and the Raiders coasted home for the win.”It was fun playing them,” said Connaughton, a junior. “We only lost three games, and they beat us in two of them. It was also fun to play in the Garden.”