With most Class L basketball teams off on Tuesday, boys’ coaches converged on Hampton Tuesday night to watch Nashua South and Winnacunnet play a makeup game.
Salem’s E.J. Perry was on hand to scout a Winnacunnet team his 3-2 Blue Devils will play on Friday night. Someone joked that Perry would be home watching a Big East game on television if Windham’s Carson Desrosiers had decided to go to a public school.
Desrosiers is the 6-foot-10 junior from Windham who starts at center for Central Catholic High School in Lawrence, Mass., the defending Division I state championships and the No. 1 ranked team in Eastern Massachusetts.
Desrosiers has already made unofficial college visits to Arizona State, Stanford and and UNLV and is being recruited by Georgetown, Kansas and Syracuse, among others. Sources say Boston College has already extended a verbal offer.
An inside scoring machine, Desrosiers is also a defensive force with a long wing span. He had 16 blocks in a tournament game last year against Charlestown (Mass.).
In their only game against a New Hampshire opponent, Central Catholic crushed Pinkerton Academy 64-35 in the semifinals of the Greater Lawrence Christmas Tournament.
Central’s second best player is also from New Hampshire. Billy Marsden, a 5-10 guard from Pelham, had 21 points in the tournament victory over Pinkerton.
Central Catholic lost its first game of the season last weekend in Springfield at the Spalding HoopHall Classic, dropping an 82-77 decision to American Heritage High School of Plantation, Fla.
Heritage got 49 points from its backcourt of Kenny Boynton, who is headed for Florida, and Raymond Taylor, a Florida Atlantic recruit. Marsden and Desrosiers combined for 48 for Central Catholic.
If you’re interested in taking a short ride to see an outstanding high school team led by New Hampshire kids, Central Catholic plays at Tewksbury on Friday (7:30), at Methuen on Sunday (3:30) and at home against Dracut (7:30) next Tuesday.