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Miller, McLaughlin fend off Ghosts

Wednesday, March, 02 By Jeff Hamrick

LAWRENCE — A look at the Central Catholic girls score last night and you would think the heavily favored Raiders took care of business against visiting Westford Academy. Nothing, however, came easy for No. 3 seed in the opening round of the Division 1 North Sectionals.

Central held a lead for only 54 seconds the first 22 minutes against the 14th-seeded Grey Ghosts, but once the Raiders jumped ahead, they gradually ran away from Westford for a 61-47 victory. Central (19-2) will take a 13-game winning streak into tomorrow’s quarterfinals against sixth-seeded Masconomet (16-3).

“We talked after the game that you can’t just expect to show up and beat anybody at this point of the season,” Central Catholic coach Sue Downer said. “Now we have a day to prepare for Masco. They were here tonight (scouting), and if I were them, I’d say ‘You know what? We can do this.’

“That was disappointing, but we got the job done. But I’ll be honest, I never felt comfortable. I never felt like this was our game, and we were finally going to step up. And that’s my job to get them better prepared for (tomorrow).”

Although the score was tied six times in the opening half, during which Westford (11-10) made eight of its first 12 field-goal attempts, Central always seemed to be playing from behind. But with a little more than 3 minutes left in the third and trailing 34-31, Casey McLaughlin took over. In a span of 2:21, The 6-foot sophomore scored seven of Central’s nine points, added a steal and an assist, sparking an 11-2 run that provided the lead for good.

“I talked to Casey and she needed to take over the game,” Downer said. “I think she finally did that. I think she finally got the confidence and she did well. We need her to be a part of our offense to be successful.”
With Miller scoring 14 of her 20 points after intermission and steady contributions from Melissa Miller, who finished with a game-high 20 points, the Raiders eventually opened a 15-point advantage with 3:20 left in the game.

“We definitely knew we wanted to come out and play intense,” Miller said. “We knew we had to play our game. We came out and played soft in the first half, we really picked it up. The seniors had a chat at halftime. We knew this could be our last opportunity to play for Central Catholic. If we didn’t give it 100 percent, our season could be over.”