3A PIAA finals:
Hershey, PA
March 24 2006

Franklin 74 Communications Tech 63

District 12 would have to wait for one more night to crown its first champ from Philly. Franklin played a solid game by going four around one most of the evening. That one player, 6’5” Nate Byham- Pitt bound as a tight end, was dominant. Byham scored on lobs when Tech front him and had nice post move jumpers when they played behind. whenever Tech collapsed on him, he found one of his buddies, Jude Urda (12 pts) and Josh smith (14 pts - including 4 triples) for easy buckets.

Franklin and Tech were close in the first period. Franklin used 2 mini 4-0 spurts to lead after one 20-15. Byham had 6 points in the quarter. A triple by Tech’s Ben Whitt with one minute to go on the clock closed out the scoring in a high scoring period. the Franklin Knights switched to a 2-3 defense in the middle of the quarter. this seemed to control some tempo at the def. end for the Knights of Franklin. rarely would they come out of the zone for the rest of the game. Tech used some full court traps dropping back into man for most of the game.

The second period was more of the same as neither team put together huge runs. In fact Franklin had a 4-0 run sparked by 4 points by Byham. Bryan Crawford, 6’3” senior provided a drive followed by a triple by smith to give Franklin a 29-20 lead with under 4 to go in the quarter. Tech’s Jernado Lucas, 5’9” sn.. started to penetrate the franklin zone and dished to andrew Randall, 6’5” soph. for two late buckets as the half ended 33-24 Franklin.

The third saw a similar game to the first 2 quarters as neither team put together huge runs. Byham continued his dominance on the off end by pumping in 10 points in the quarter.

Entering the final quarter at 51- 39, Tech turned up the heat but Franklin managed to maintain the lead. with three minutes to go smith hit 2 fouls for the knights to give them a 66-53 lead. however, Byham fouled out. Franklin missed a bunch of fouls to make it interesting but in the end solid ball handling by Bill Klinger, 6’1” guard, provided enough stability for the knights to be 3A champs.

Points

Franklin
Jude Urda 21
Josh Smith 14
Nate Byham 22

Tech
Shawn Francis 11
Jernardo Lucas 20
andrew Randall 15

Unofficial stats
Reb
Franklin 20 Tech 24

Turn overs
Franklin 10 Tech 14

shooting
Franklin 44% Tech 50%

FT %
Franklin 78% Tech 61%

sidelines...another great night of hoops at Hershey. ..Our PA hoops guru Jerry Shenk was court side ..Neast Beat writer, Jon K, was in attendance with dad...Gerry Mac was at the first game rooting on his old high school team ....the Parkside Inn was rocking...Attendance 7,375 for the boys girls double header...Met some great beat writers which we will try to put links up on LLhoops.com... Mandy Housenick Of "The Morning Call" covering the girls games.. ED BRANNON of The Derrick.com covering Franklin....thanks to PIAA for allowing LLhoops.com access this season...some picts to follow.

Girls reporting of PIAA games

http://www.mcall.com/sports/ .....Mandy Housenick Of "The Morning Call"

Franklin Beat reporter story

http://www.thederrick.com/stories/03252006-6100.shtml..By ED BRANNON of The Derrick.com