The Success Continues
Communications Tech suffers no letdowns in 1st round victory
by Marcus Wright
Sunday, March 2nd, 2008

South Philadelphia High School, PA - Perhaps the hardest thing about winning a league or district title is realizing that you can’t dwell on the victory too long, for the state tournament is right around the corner.  Because there are so many high schools in the country, becoming the champion out of the many teams in a league is a big deal, and the possibility of a letdown headed into the state tournament exists heavily.  However, for Communications Tech, the 2008 Public League champions, letdown was not an option, nor even a blip on the radar.  They shined in their 69-45 victory over Lancaster Catholic in the first round of the PIAA State tournament Friday night.

“We just put it behind us,” Comm. Tech’s forward Andrew Randall  (24 points) said after the game about winning the Public league title.  “We had to come out here and play as a team.”

 The victory was a great team effort on multiple ends.  Offensively, the Phoenix were able to counter Lancaster Catholic’s early 2-3 zone with great outside shooting.  A couple of three pointers came from Randall himself, who admitted after the game that he wanted to start from the outside and work his way in offensively for this game. 

 Defensively, the Phoenix played scrappy man defense, forced many turnovers which led to easy transition baskets, and held Lancaster Catholic to 8 first half points (the score was 32-8 at halftime).  As for the intangibles, Comm. Tech controlled the boards  and the tempo for most of the game.  Lancaster Catholic made a run at a comeback in the second half, getting to within 15 in the early part of the 4th quarter.  But the Phoenix had built such a huge lead that the Crusaders just didn’t have enough to make a complete comeback, and Comm. Tech put the finishing touches on the first round victory.

They now go on to play Holy Ghost Prep in round two on Tuesday.  Despite the big win, Randall believes the team can get better.  “Basically the passing and on the ball defense, man to man,” he said in reference to what he thinks the team can improve on.  And now that they’ve proven that the Public League title victory is indeed behind them, they won’t have to worry about a championship letdown interfering with that improvement.

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