Prince Tech boys beats Fitch 70-53 in battle of unbeatens

Stewart’s 22 lifts Falcons past Fitch

Hartford — The Fitch boys' basketball has been playing with an edge this season, doing everything it took to put together a 12-0 record.

Fitch met its match Thursday night in Prince Tech.

Division I prospect Kazell Stewart had a game-high 22 points, 10 rebounds and six assists as unbeaten Prince Tech downed Fitch 70-53.

“I thought we were playing with that kind of chip (on our shoulder),” Fitch coach Charlie Silvan said. “To (Prince's) credit, they brought their game to another level. They did a great job.

“They rebounded. They executed really, really well on offense. They were really prepared. They had a great game plan. They played solid team defense and they rebounded on both ends. They did a nice job.”

Prince (12-0), one of just two unbeaten teams in the CIAC's Division

II, played like a team out to make a point. It thinks it's been overlooked because it's a tech school and it's fallen just short of the state finals the past two seasons, losing both times in the Division III semifinals.

“People are counting us out,” Stewart said. “We can do this. We can go a long way. Everybody just thinks because we're a tech school that we're not going to go far.”

Silvan said: “They're hungry. They've been knocking on the door (of a state final). I'm sure they want to finish that deal.”

Prince dominated the boards and had a 37-21 edge. That included 21 offensive rebounds.

“We didn't box out,” Silvan said. “(Prince) outhustled us. They outscrapped us. They beat us to the ball. I don't think we had one offensive rebound the whole second half.

“We've outrebounded everybody up to this point. It's actually been a strength of ours.”

Tyshawn Jackson had 15 points, five rebounds and four assists for Prince and Jaycob German had 14 points and five rebounds.

Ajia Brown scored 15 points, Adriel Atod 14 and Yahbriel Roman 10 for

Fitch.

Prince never trailed and took a 3222 lead into halftime.

Atod made back-to-back jumpers to cut Fitch's deficit to 38-30 with 2 minutes left in the third quarter.

Stewart wouldn't let Fitch get any closer. He scored 12 of his team's 14 points that quarter. German ended the third with a layup to give Prince a 46-34 lead.

Prince pulled away in the fourth. Stewart punctuated it with a dunk with 18 seconds left to push his team ahead 70-51. n.griffen@theday.com