Centennial’s new lineup gets a bounce-back win
For Centennial, it was a bounce-back win after a 30-point shellacking against Fort Pierce Central the night before.
For Palm Beach Central, it was a bitter taste of life without its 6-foot-8 stud Matthew Puodziukaitis, who sprained his ankle in Saturday’s practice and could be out for one to two weeks.
After a lineup shakeup by Centennial coach Chris Carannante, the Eagles beat visiting Palm Beach Central 63-50 with 16 points from shooting guard Jayson Smith.
Ranked 73rd in the state, Centennial moved to 15-7 while Palm Beach Central dropped to 15-6.
Smith racked up 7 points in the first quarter. Overall, he bagged two 3-pointers and drove hard to the basket, drawing fouls. Point guard Felix Buroz chipped in 12 points.
“We just came off a terrible loss and wanted to start the game harder than last game,” Smith said. “With three of our starters not starting, I felt I had to be a spark for our team.”
Indeed, Carannante placed three new starters into the lineup – Sixth Man Jayden Prosper, who had 8 points and played tough defense, Avery Johnson and Kmar Honore.
“We shook it up and everyone handled it well,” Carannante said.
Indeed, it worked as Centennial ran away in the second half buoyed by a 17-7 third quarter and killer run in the period’s final two minutes.
“We played with a whole lot more energy,” Carannante said. “(Tuesday) night, we got punched in the mouth. We got shell-shocked and didn’t respond well (Tuesday).”
It was a baffling 24 hours for the Port St. Lucie power. “We played better together as a team,” Smith said of the win. “(Tuesday) we fell apart, couldn’t hit shots. Tonight we got everybody involved, passing the ball with a lot of assists, a lot of makes.”
The question for Palm Beach Central is how to time Puodziukaitis’ return so he’s 100% for the postseason.
Coach John St.-Juste said it could be two weeks, but the senior is talking about coming back next Monday at Glades Central. Palm Beach Central has two straight games in “The Muck” – starting Friday against Pahokee.
Puodziukaitis, who has a lot of smallcollege interest, is averaging 15.3 points and 11 rebounds per game.
“We needed him out there,” first-year coach St. Juste said. “Especially rebounding. He’s our guy. He’s possibly in the running for player of the year if we continue to win at a high level. I think he’ll be first-team All-Area again like last year. Whenever you’re missing an AllArea kid, you’re not the same.”
Picking up the slack was senior small forward Bryan Joseph, who drained 16 points while bagging four 3-pointers. “He’s probably one of the best shooters in the county,” St. Juste said.
“MP” has a big-man partner in crime in 6-7 Alex Tellison, who plays center. But Tellison was playing on a sore knee and finished with 13 points and 9 rebounds. Tellison’s inflamed knee forced him to miss the last two practices. Senior David Nelson, their best defender, added 9 points but it wasn’t enough.
“Alex held up well,” St. Juste said. “You could see (the injury) out there but he’s our senior captain so he’s going to give us everything he’s got.”
St. Juste said the final two minutes of the third quarter doomed the Broncos as they took quick shots and missed free throws, leading to Centennial’s spurt. In all, the Wellington school missed 10 free throws. Palm Beach Central had been down only 34-30 at intermission.
“We took quick shots and didn’t play our brand of basketball,” St. Juste said. “We talk about moving the basketball. To close the third quarter, we were terrible.”
Next up for Centennial is Broward County’s Cardinal Gibbons Monday at home. “I think we should win the next four and go to the district championships,” Smith said.
WEST PALM BEACH — After more than 93 minutes of tough, physical playoff soccer, Lola Cannova made sure Cardinal Newman High’s girls team would live to play another day.
Cannova struck a 12-yard shot from the left side that found the upper right corner of the net in the second overtime and the Crusaders held on to defeat Lincoln Park Academy 3-2 in the first round of the District 11-3A soccer tournament Wednesday night.
“Lola has not been the scoring beast that she was last year, but that was a wonderful goal,” Cardinal Newman coach Bill Stepanovsky said. “That was the old Lola.”
Cannova’s goal sent the fourth-seeded Crusaders (9-4-1) into the semifinals, where they will face top-seeded Benjamin (14-0) on Monday night. The fifthseeded Greyhounds finished 12-5 and are unlikely to earn a wild-card berth in the regionals.
“That goal was just a special moment,” said Cannova, a junior striker. “Sophia (Webber), our midfielder, kicked it, I headed it and it went past the defender. I ran and I took the goalie on and I scored. I knew it was going in.”
The game was tied 1-1 at halftime and 2-2 at the end of regulation. There was confusion among the officials about the format for overtime, which is not played during the regular season. One said the game would be decided on penalty kicks, while another said the teams would play two 10-minute overtime periods and then proceed to penalty kicks if the game remained tied. A check of the rulebook confirmed the latter method.
Here are three takeaways:
Sophomore sensation
Cannova was the Crusaders’ leading scorer last season, but she has yielded the spotlight to sophomore Jada Alexander this year. Alexander, who had a team-high 15 goals during the regular season, scored both Cardinal Newman goals Wednesday night. She tied the score late in the first half when she got the ball in space about 10 yards in front of the goal and her shot easily beat goalkeeper Kyler Tiger. But it was a dazzling goal midway through the second half that had the crowd buzzing. Alexander gathered the ball about 25 yards out, turned and lofted a shot that curled into the right corner of the net.
“It was a good feeling,” she said. “I was so excited because I hadn’t made a shot like that in awhile. I was proud of myself and proud of my teammates for working so hard to get me the ball.”
Stepanovsky put it simply: “She’s our scorer. She finds the goal real well, plays with a lot of heart. I’m glad she’s on our team.”
After Cannova’s overtime goal, the Crusaders still had to shut down the Greyhounds for the last six-plus minutes. Led by gritty sophomore Isabella Truchan, the defense kept the ball out of harm’s way over that stretch.
“Bella does a great job,” Stepanovsky said. “We put her back there because she’s got a big foot and she plays so hard.”
Bring on Benjamin
The Crusaders realize what’s ahead of them.
Benjamin is the top-ranked Class 3A team in Florida (fifth among all classes) and has outscored its opponents 66-6. Lily White, a Penn commit, was The Post’s Player of the Year last season.
The teams did not meet during the regular season, but Cardinal Newman battled Benjamin in the district championship game last year, losing 2-0.
“We just hope that’s the part that we remember,” Stepanovsky said. “We’re the underdog — nothing to lose. We’re just going to leave it all out there and work hard and try to cut down on the opportunities of Lily White. She’s the one you’ve got to stop.”
Cannova and Alexander will be meeting up with some old friends on Monday night. They play on the same travel team, the Palm Beach Gardens Predators, as many of the Buccaneers.
“We definitely need to get a couple of good, hard practices in as we’re coming in basically like the underdog,” Alexander said. “You never know what can happen . ... Although we’re friends, we still go at it as hard as we can. They know us, we know how they play, so it’s going to be an intense game.”
Tears for Lincoln Park
As the Greyhounds prepared for the bus ride back to Fort Pierce, many were in tears as they hugged each other. It was a tough way to end a good season.
“I can’t fault them one bit,” coach Donald Logue said. “They fought tooth and nail and left everything out on that field. They can hold their heads up high and know they did everything they could. It just wasn’t enough tonight.”
Junior striker Jacey Lane, one of the state’s leading scorers, did everything she could to keep Lincoln Park in the game.
Midway through the first half, she opened the scoring with a hard shot that slipped through the hands of goalkeeper Jaiden Wandtke and into the net.
In the second half, she broke past the defense near midfield and took the ball the rest of the way, easily beating the goalkeeper for her 30th goal of the season.
Lane will be back next season, but the Greyhounds are losing several key seniors.
“Some of them I’ve had since sixth or seventh grade,” Logue said. “This is emotional for them, as you can see.”