Cape Cod Tech Girls Basketball Picks Up Road Playoff Win

HOPEDALE – It was no practice, no problem for the Cape Cod Tech girls basketball team, who despite the tough circumstances dealt their way the previous week, mounted a second-half comeback to win a playoff game in the preliminary round of the Division 5 state tournament.

To say, simply, that the No. 34 Crusaders (10-9) visited No. 31 Rockport (13-7) and won the matchup 53-41 last Thursday would belie everything that went into the postseason road victory.

Like so many other schools in the region, Cape Tech closed for the entire week as the area grappled with the damage and power outages wrought by Feb. 23’s historic blizzard. For the basketball team though, not only was their school completely closed, their gymnasium had been converted into a regional shelter. The gym in which the Crusaders played and drilled — the very basketball court on which the team had won five times on the way to qualifying for both the vocational and state tournaments — was covered in a tarp and lined with dozens of cots as it transferred into a haven for warmth and electricity.

That all meant that as Cape Tech embarked on the three-hour trip to the North Shore’s Rockport (hitting Boston rush hour traffic along the way), they hadn’t played or practiced in a full week. They had most recently seen the court the Thursday prior when they faced Minuteman in the semifinals of the vocational playoffs, falling 55-29.

At Rockport, the Crusaders found themselves down 25-17 at the end of the second quarter. They proceeded to outscore their opponents by 20 points in the final half.

“We came back, and we just played very well,” head coach Alan Harrison said. “Probably one of the better halves of basketball all season, getting the entire team involved.”

Though No. 34 Cape Tech and No. 31 Rockport were seeded right near each other, the three spots between the schools still made a difference. Rockport earned the home game and Cape Tech, with seven players at this deep part of the season, had to launch the come-from-behind effort more than 100 miles from Harwich for the upset win. But the Crusaders knew the game was winnable, even as they trailed by eight at the half.

“If we just put our game together and we play five as a team, it'll work, and it did,” said Harrison, who’s also Cape Tech’s athletic director. “We were hitting the shots, and like I tell the kids a lot, it's about the players. It's not a play. It's about your skill and what you can do, so go out and use your skill, whether it's a rebound or whether you can fast break or get a steal, whatever you can do, use your skill, and that's how we've done all year.”

The win against Rockport was Cape Tech’s second playoff victory in as many years. After advancing to the Division 5 state tournament’s round of 32, Cape Tech lost 62-24 at No. 2 Hopedale (13-7) last Saturday. Senior Mia Gonsalves had 9 points, junior Senny Walton had 7, junior Sophia Riker had 6 and senior Ava Townsend had 2. Junior Zana’e Barrett added 11 rebounds. Against Rockport, Barrett had 8 points (6 in the fourth quarter) and 13 rebounds.

By the time the Crusaders played Hopedale, they felt as if they’d more than achieved what they originally set out to do when the season began back in December, in what was Harrison’s first year coaching the team. 

Namely, they sought to qualify for the voke and state tournaments: done and done. Cape Tech clinched the state postseason via a 56-52 win against Upper Cape Tech on Feb. 13, less than two weeks before their home gym became a storm shelter. The win at Rockport in the preliminary round was an added bonus to those main goals.

“We accomplished them, and we got a road victory, which, to me, is extremely satisfying — to go up there and beat somebody like that,” Harrison said.