Central Catholic overcomes slow start

Central Catholic High School (3-2) overcame a slow start en route to a 75-58 victory at home over H.L. Bourgeois (7-3) Tuesday night.
The Eagles’ offense was stifled in the first half by the H.L. Bourgeois defense, although Central Catholic did have some good looks at the basket that just did not go in.
Trailing by 20-10 when the second quarter began, Central Catholic began playing some zone defense that led to missed Braves’ shots and easy transaction baskets for the Eagles. By halftime the tide of the game had reversed into Central Catholic’s favor and it had a 34-20 lead.
“I was excited about the way we played after the first quarter,” said Eagle coach Ree Case. “The zone worked well for us in the second quarter so we kept playing it in the third quarter. We rebounded well in the zone. … We got some layups off our defense and we hit some 3’s.”
Case said the Braves were making their shots in the first quarter and their defensive quickness and size gave the Eagles early problems which contributed to the first-quarter deficit.
“We had to make some adjustments to their defense after the first quarter,” Case said.
Central Catholic continued to build on its lead in the third quarter when they doubled the H.L. Bourgeois score, 22-11, in the period to take a 56-42 lead going into the final quarter.
Central Catholic was led in scoring by Nick Case with 24 points as the Eagles had five players score in double figures. Tyler Hoffpauir chipped in with 19 points. Stefano Guarisco, Jalen Johnson and Samarick Paul each scored 10 points. Garret LeBlanc rounded out the Eagle scoring with 2 points.
Central Catholic will play in the Patterson tournament Thursday.
The Eagles junior varsity team lost 33-27. Matt Vorenkamp led the way in scoring for the Eagles with 10 points.