Central Mass. shut out; Final hurdle too high for SJ.

Byline: Jim Wilson 

WORCESTER - In the end, St. John's had one too many mountains to climb.

Or perhaps - in the case of Central Catholic forwards Adrian Gonzales and Carson Desrosiers - two mountains.

Desrosiers, the Raiders' 6-foot-9 sophomore center, and Gonzales, a 6-foot-5 forward, patrolled the paint and kept the Pioneers off-balance and gave Central Catholic a 68-47 win in the Division 1 state final last night at the DCU Center.

Gonzales finished with a game-high 28 points while Desrosiers finished with just two, but made sure St. John's didn't get many multiple looks at shots. Point guard Wilfredo Pagan added 21 points for the Raiders.

"He was the difference tonight," St. John's coach Bob Foley said of Gonzales. "We handled their other kids pretty well, we got them in foul trouble, so we did a lot of the other things we wanted to do, but it was just controlling (Gonzales) and (Pagan)."

The Pioneers (21-7) started off trading buckets with Central Catholic (25-2), but the Raiders pulled away with a 13-0 run at the end of the first quarter and into the second, which gave Central a 23-7 lead with 5:43 left in the half.

The Pioneers kept working and ended the half with a 7-2 run to cut the lead to 32-25 at the half. Gonzales led Central Catholic with 12 points at the break, while Brendan Russell had seven of his eight points for St. John's.

"I think we were just a little tentative to start it off, but midway through the second quarter we started to pick it up," Russell said. "We went on that run and cut it to seven at halftime, so we had some good momentum heading into the third quarter."

St. John's then quickly cut the game to one possession, as Matt LaBove hit a put-back and Anthony Trapasso drained two free throws. The teams traded misses before Russell was blocked by Desrosiers, but the ball went to an open David White, who calmly drained a 3-pointer from the top to make it 32-32 with six minutes left.

Central Catholic got four points back on buckets by Gonzales and Billy Marsden, but White pulled St. John's within one with three foul shots to make it 36-35 with 3:33 left. The Raiders got some breathing room with a 9-2 run to close out the quarter, which was part of a larger, 18-4 run that saw Central Catholic take a 54-39 lead with five minutes left.

"Our plan was to go to zone in the third quarter and go back to the man in the fourth," Central Catholic coach Richard Nault said. "I felt like if we did that we'd be able to make a run."

Central Catholic kept the pressure on throughout the fourth quarter and held St. John's to just one field goal in the final frame - a twisting layup by senior John Perron with two minutes left that made it 62-46.

"We thought if we hit some free throws somewhere around that point, but we missed some," Foley said of the tie game in the third quarter. "We thought if we got a lead they would have to start chasing us a little bit, but they didn't."

St. John's had made a habit of winning close games this postseason, including two overtime contests and won another with four seconds left, but the magic wasn't there last night.

"I thought our kids fought back hard and we were right there but we missed some free throws and some balls went in and out of the rim," Foley said. "Obviously, they're a very good team and well coached. It was just a great run for our kids."

LaBove, St. John's 6-foot-9 junior co-captain, led the Pioneers with 15 points and matched up well against his sophomore counterpart Desrosiers.

"He blocked a couple of my shots at the beginning, but the coaches kept telling me to keep going at him and doing what I was doing and good things would come," LaBove said. "As the game went along, I was making some more shots."

Foley credited Perron and Russell - the only seniors on the team - for helping mold the younger players into what figures to be a solid core over the next few years.

"We feel that by the end of this year our young kids had grown up and played in some big games," Foley said. "With their leadership, boy, we did great things at the end of the game to win them. We just weren't close enough tonight to do them."

NAME: ST. JOHN'S HIGH SCHOOL 

ART: PHOTO

CUTLINE: Central Catholic's Watson Constant, right, tries to steal the ball from St. John's Richard Rodgers, but sends it out of bounds.

PHOTOG: ED COLLIER