Boys Basketball

December 29, 2009

High Tech survives late surge in win

Xavier Corporan High Tech

Lasercats' forward Xavier Corporan scored 15 of his game-high 22 in the first half.

Click Here for photos from High Tech at Randolph.

By Jason Bernstein
Editorial Director

RANDOLPH – For High Tech’s Xavier Corporan, this was the offensive performance he had been seeking.

Corporan broke out of his recent scoring drought in a big way, scoring 15 of his season-high 22 points in the first half as the Lasercats raced out to a huge lead and hung on to defeat Randolph 59-51 yesterday in the Rams Roundball Festival.

“I really wanted to get out of this slump,” Corporan said. “I was mad and I knew I had to bounce back from that today and give it my all.”

Corporan, who said his offense had “been slacking” this season, had been limited to just 14 points in the previous two contests and 25 over the last three games.

High Tech (4-1) saw an 18-point lead disintegrate to just three early in the fourth. But Corporan responded with a 3-pointer with 6:56 left in the game to jump-start a 9-0 Lasercat run and keep the game out of reach.

The Lasercats and Corporan started to heat up late in the first quarter. He stole an inbounds pass and raced down the floor for an uncontested dunk and less than a minute later, buried a 3-pointer to cap off a 13-2 run for High Tech.

“He was shooting it well,” head coach Steve Ricciardi said. “He was getting to the rim whenever he wanted. I think they were having trouble guarding us and they especially had trouble matching up with him.”

“(Xavier’s) an all-county player,” added guard Kari Williams. “I expect big games like that from him and John (Greenwald). They’re our two leading scorers.”

Corporan and the rest of the Lasercat offense continued to pile up the points as they used their up-tempo style to force turnovers and punish the Rams (2-2) in transition by driving towards the hoop or kicking it to open shooters on perimeter.

High Tech hit four 3-pointers in the second quarter. Corporan and Dmitri Pearson both connected on treys in the final 23 seconds of the half to give the Lasercats a 16-point advantage heading into the half.

Corporan added a pair of free throws just 29 seconds into the third quarter to make it 43-25 in favor of High Tech, but what seemed like a sure blowout for the Lasercats soon turned into a nail-biter. Randolph was able to slow down the speed from the breakneck pace of the first half into a more manageable tempo.

Already out of their comfort zone, the shots that had been falling for High Tech in the opening half were failing to connect in the third quarter. The Lasercats didn’t hit a shot from the field in the first five and a half minutes and scored just five points in the period. Mike Grillo’s basket 22 seconds into the fourth cut the High Tech to just three at 46-43.

“In the second half we just couldn’t make a shot, it was frustrating,” said Ricciardi who felt his team was getting good shot opportunities, but couldn’t convert. “They went into a little triangle and two (on defense) which slowed us down too and we didn’t handle that very well. Luckily we made enough shots at the end to win it.”

“It’s hard for us to go slow,” Williams said. “We’re all about speed. It’s hard for us to slow down, but that’s what we try to do when a team’s in a zone (defense).”

In addition to his 22 points, Corporan had six rebounds and was the lone player to score in double figures for High Tech. Kevin Baez added nine points, Pearson scored seven and Kevin Mayaka had six points and four steals.

Kevin Farrell led the Rams with 17 points and 11 rebounds in defeat. Grillo scored 13 points off the bench and Kyle Aiken had eight assists, seven rebounds, six points and four steals.

With the victory, the Lasercats are now 2-0 in the three-game round-robin event. High Tech’s final game is on Wednesday against Old Bridge at 5 p.m.

Dmitri Pearson High Tech

Guard Dmitri Pearson scores two of his seven points for High Tech in the win.

  1 2 3 4 Total
High Tech Lasercats (4-1)
21
20
5
13
59
Randolph Rams (2-2)
13
12
16
10
51
High Tech   Randolph
  2s 3s 1s Pts
Kevin Baez
2
1
2
9
John Greenwald
1
0
3
5
Xavier Corporan
2
4
6
22
Dmitri Pearson
1
1
2
7
William Ventura
1
0
0
2
Derek Sierra
2
0
0
4
Kari Williams
0
0
0
0
Dwight Mathis
2
0
0
4
Kevin Mayaka
3
0
0
6
Total
14
6
13
59
 
 
 
 
  2s 3s 1s Pts
Kyle Aiken
2
0
2
6
Colin McMahon
2
0
1
5
Tyler Healey
0
0
0
0
Kevin Farrell
7
0
3
17
Sean White
2
0
0
4
Chris Westenhiser
0
0
0
0
Josh Embden
1
0
0
2
Ross Gravitte
0
0
0
0
Tyler Manser
0
0
0
0
Mike Grillo
5
0
3
13
Pat Tortorella
2
0
0
4
Julian Aiken
0
0
0
0
Total
21
0
9
51
     
High Tech: Corporan 6 rebounds; Williams 6 rebounds; Baez 4 assists; Greenwald 4 rebounds; Mayaka 4 steals. Randolph: Farrell 11 rebounds; K. Aiken 8 assists, 7 rebounds, 4 steals; White 6 rebounds, 4 assists; McMahon 6 rebounds.