By Mike Ramczyk
Correspondent
The Prairie School is usually a difficult Metro Classic Conference opponent for Catholic Central, but the Toppers boys and girls both took care of business Tuesday night in Burlington.
After the girls won in the opener, the boys shot the lights out with eight 3-pointers in the nightcap to hold off Prairie, 71-66.
The Hilltoppers, who closed the game on a 7-0 run, jumped to 2-0 on the season.
Catholic Central is ranked No. 9 in Division 5 in the Wissports.net state rankings.
David Doerflinger hit three straight triples, as the hot-shooting Toppers jumped out to a 22-12 lead early, only to see Prairie’s 14-4 run tie the game at 26-26.
The game was knotted at 35-35 at the half.
Catholic Central outscored Prairie, 36-31, in the second half.
Four Toppers scored in double figures, as the squad was able to routinely break the full-court press thanks to the ball-handling of point guard Bennett Wright.
Wright led the Toppers with 16 points, followed by 14 from Chas Miles, 13 from Doerflinger and 11 from Paul Nevin.
Catholic Central shot an impressive 46 percent from the floor (24-52).
The Toppers also were lights out from deep, hitting 8-of-23 for 34 percent.
Sam Henderson, Miles and Nevin led the team with three rebounds each.
Miles dished out four assists to pace the squad.
For Wright, it was about the team staying focused for 36 minutes and putting together a complete performance.
“The key was staying mentally locked in the whole 36 minutes,” Wright said. “We put together two good halves and stayed resilient even after trailing in the second half.”
“My teammates stepped up and hit big shots,” Wright said. “All the credit goes to them and the coaches for laying out a game plan for us that was effective and led us to victory.”
“It feels good. We’ve been working for games like these.”
The Catholic Central boys and girls host another doubleheader Friday night against St. Thomas More.
The girls play at 5:30 p.m., followed by the boys at 7 p.m.
Catholic Central girls 32, Prairie School 26
In the first game, meanwhile, the Catholic Central girls played in a tight defensive battle and carried a 17-7 advantage entering the second half.
Catholic Central improved to 2-0 in the Metro Classic Conference and 4-1 overall.
The Toppers were held to 33 percent shooting, and only made two 3-point shots, but they were led by the two-headed monster of Maddy Von Rabenau and Izzy Phillips.
Phillips led the Toppers with 11 points on 4-for-7 shooting.
Von Rabenau added 10 points.
Defensively, Morgan Ramsey paced the club with seven rebounds, and Phillips added four rebounds.
The Toppers held on despite being outscored 19-15 in the second half.
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