BOYS BASKETBALL: Middletown knocks off Berlin in CCC's first round





"It was very important to get out to an early lead, to prevent them from doing keeping it slow," said Sytulek. "Once we did get out to a lead, they couldn't do it. Then they had to play at our pace and we know we're faster than they are, so we wanted to use our speed to our advantage."

Middletown co-captain Shawn Strickland (12 points, 4 assists) underlined his coach's words.

"That was in the game plan for today," said Strickland. "Since we had beat them the last two times, they weren't going to try to run with us. It was just in our game plan to be patient."



"When they're in a zone like that, we've got to hit our outside shots and we did," said Sytulek. "That was key. That was key that we had guys in there that were hitting those shots."



"In the first quarter, I think they completely forgot about me," said Rhodes, "and that gave me the opportunity to do what I normally do, just attack the boards."

When the second quarter ended, Middletown led, 27-14, and every time Berlin started to close the gap, a new Dragon would step up -- Brandon Simmons (9 points) and Taji Owens inside and Strickland, Robinson, and Collins outside.