LAWRENCE — With a 20-1 record and its recent history of two Division 1 state boys basketball championships under coach Ricky Nault, Central Catholic may be the toughest team mentally in the commonwealth.
However, at this point in the season, St. John's Prep may not be too far behind.
Completely disregarding a blowout loss (by 24 points) to the Raiders earlier in the season, the upset-minded Eagles led Central by a point with 11.5 seconds left last night. But sophomore Nick Cambio banked a layup for the hosts with just under six seconds remaining, and Central hung on for a 59-58 win to capture the IAABO Board 130 Basketball Classic.
Central Catholic could be considered somewhat fortunate because after Cambio's clutch hoop, the Prep's Steve Haladyna back-rimmed a short jumper just before the buzzer went off.
Despite sitting out nearly the entire second quarter because he had three fouls, Haladyna finished with 25 points, made the all-tournament team and was the bane of Central Catholic's existence.
"That was a fairly easy shot for me," Haladyna said of the wild ending. "It was about a 5-foot floater, and I can make that shot."
It wasn't as easy as Haladyna made it sound; the Eagles had to go 90 feet in under five seconds, improvising all the way. Yet Haladyna came extremely close to sending Central home with what would have been a stunning loss.
"We scored with about five seconds left," said Nault, whose team will be the No. 1 seed when the state tourney pairings come out Friday. "I wish we'd scored with only two seconds left; we left them with too much time, and they got a good look.
"The kid (Haladyna) is fearless. He killed us underneath tonight."
For a while, it appeared that Central might win by a large margin. The Raiders led 30-19 at the half as the Prep couldn't get into any kind of offensive flow.
But the Eagles soon found their rhythm. Freddy Shove (15 points) opened the third quarter with a 3-pointer, and St. John's methodically pecked away, whittling it down to a 42-37 on Haladyna's three-point play with 7:21 remaining.
Shove buried a huge three with 1:35 left, bringing the Eagles to within one (54-53). Central's Joel Berroa (13 points, with 11 coming in the fourth quarter), who was named tournament MVP, responded with a three of his own. Shove then came through with another trifecta and, after a Central turnover, Haladyna made two foul shots with under 20 seconds remaining to give the Eagles the lead, 58-57.
Coming out of a timeout with 11.5 seconds left, the Prep had three fouls to waste, and the strategy was to foul quickly and not let Central execute a set play. However, the Raiders were able to avoid obvious contact, and it resulted in the winning basket on a well-designed play.
"We wanted to foul — that was it," said Prep (13-7) coach Sean Connolly. "We bumped them, but I guess we didn't foul them hard enough. But if you foul them too hard, you risk (the officials calling) an intentional foul.
"I love the way we're playing right now," Connolly said. "We're playing tough and physical, and we're making plays. If we can play like we did tonight in the state tourney, I think we can play with anybody."
"This shows you we can play with anybody," added the Prep's Mike Carbone, who finished with 10 points. "We're going to be even hungrier in the (state) tourney."
