Central Catholic hoping to push past state quarters

The Central Catholic boys’ basketball team has finished one win short of the coveted LHSAA Top 28 state semifinals each of the past two seasons.

If early season results are foreshadowing the future, the third time could be the charm.

With a talented core of returnees and two years of bad memories fresh on their minds, Central Catholic has rolled to a strong start to the season, posting a sparkling 20-4 record.

With a few weeks to go in the season, the Eagles believe they have what it takes to take the next step and further their playoff push.

“We talk about it a lot,” Eagles senior Lloyd Grogan said. “We’ll talk about how the quarterfinal round always seems to get us. This year, we have to do a little extra. We have to play harder if we want to get past that third round. We believe we have what it takes to do it.”

“When you lose in the quarters each of the last two years, if you’re not talking about going to the finals, you’re not doing something right,” Eagles coach Ree Case said. “We talk a lot about it. … It’s definitely our goal to take the next step this time around.”

The road to the semifinals started this summer for the Eagles.

Case said his players worked hard in the weight room, adding upper body strength to their cores.

The coach added that in years past, the Eagles have been out-muscled by more physical opponents.

“It’s a credit to these guys because they worked really hard all summer in the weight room,” Case said. “You can see the difference physically between this year and last year. This year, we look like a high school basketball team n a varsity basketball team. … The past few years, we played varsity basketball and had varsity talent, but physically we looked like a JV team.”

“We really showed a true commitment to being better physically,” Grogan added in agreement. “Our guys this year are better, fast, stronger. That really helps when you go up against the better teams across the state, especially in the playoffs and everything.”

Case said in addition to adding offseason beef, Central Catholic played a full summer schedule and excelled, posting an 18-2 record.

For most teams, summer basketball is a tool used to work on basics and to stay in shape.

In each game the Eagles played, Case said he felt his team developing more and more chemistry.

“I thought we got a lot better as a team this summer,” Case said. “By the time we got to the end of the summer, I thought we were playing really well. I was really hoping that’d carry over into the season, which it has.”

The biggest area where the team has continued to gel is within its fast-paced, high-octane offensive attack.

Central Catholic has one of the most powerful offenses in the entire Tri-parish area. The Eagles have scored 70 or more points in 10 games this season, one of the highest scoring outputs in all of Class 1A.

The way they score a lot of those points is in transition. Central Catholic plays an up tempo, fast-break oriented pace designed to both wear out opponents and also overcome the team’s lack of height.

“We have to,” Case said. “If we play a half-court game with our size, we’ll get exposed on defense. So we try to play fast for two reasons. One, so when we’re on offense, we can beat their big men down [the floor]. And second, we want their big guys to run as much as possible. … So when the fourth quarter comes around, they aren’t at full strength.”

“Our average size is like 6-foot-1,” Grogan added. “But when you get to the playoffs, you’ll face teams like Southern Lab who has guys who are like 6-6. … We need to play the way we do. We need to take advantage of our quickness and get up and down the floor because it sort of tires out the other guys a little bit.”

Leading the way for that potent offense is Central Catholic’s one-two punch of Grogan and junior slasher Dontrell Brown.

But Case said the team has taken the next step offensively because of its new-found balance from its role players.

Contributing players like Josh Singleton, Tyler Hoffpauir and Jovon Johnson have all emerged as reliable outside shooters to take the pressure off Grogan and Brown and make the team more rounded.

“Going into the game, we know everybody’s game plan is to slow down Lloyd and Dontrell,” Johnson said. “But when we play, it’s this whole opposite thing because we have a whole team full of shooters this year opposite of them who are making plays and are helping put points on the board.”

“We have a team full of shooters,” Grogan agreed. “Everyone is playing with confidence and we all have that chemistry.”

With a handful of games to go in the regular season, the Eagles have already made history. Central Catholic was ranked the No. 1 team in the state by the Louisiana Sportswriter’s Association’s Top 10 poll for the first time in history.

The team has also been ranked first in power rankings as recently as this past week.

But none of it matters if they don’t get over the hump.

This year, they believe they will.

“We don’t want it to end the same way this time,” Johnson said. “This year, we want to win it all. The years before, we talked about winning it all, but you could tell, we weren’t fully dedicated. This year, we are. We all want it bad.”

“We think we have what it takes,” Grogan added. “For a lot of guys, like myself, this is the last go-round. We don’t want our senior year to end the same way the other years have ended. This year, we want to do that little bit extra. We want to make that playoff run.

“We believe we’re more than ready to go hard and make a push.”

Central Catholic guard Brent Green glides through the air for an easy one-handed layup. After being eliminated from the state playoffs in the quarterfinals two straight seasons, the Eagles hope to make a deep playoff push. CASEY GISCLAIR