Central crushes Girls to claim another title

Vince Parziale established the girls' basketball program at Central in 1985. Frank Greco eventually took over the program after serving as Parziale's assistant for 10 years.

But with Greco on a sabbatical from teaching this school year, Parziale was talked into returning as head man, with Greco serving as one of his assistants.

Friday, Parziale guided the Lancers to their eighth Public League Class AAAA championship in the last nine seasons with a 46-29 triumph over Girls High. The veteran coach was once the boys' coach at Germantown.

"I retired from coaching and teaching after we won it in 1998," he said. "It was nice to be back here today."

The victory, the Lancers' 14th in 20 games, put them in the District 12 playoffs against the No. 2 Class AAAA team from the Catholic League.

The Catholic League representatives have not been determined.

Girls also made the district tourney and will face the top AAAA team from the Catholic League. The Gazelles (12-3) lost to the Lancers in their regular-season meeting, 46-33, after being down by only one point at halftime.

This time around, it looked as if they might give Central a run after fighting back from a 9-0 deficit to trail by two at the end of the first quarter. But that was as close as they got.

Philadelphia University-bound Najah Jacobs hit a layup at the buzzer to give Central a 11-9 lead and spark a 10-2 run.

The Lancers led by 30-16 at intermission, and Girls drew no closer than 13 points in the second half.

Jacobs led all players with 18 points. Isabella Ross added 13 points, and Taylor Phillips was good for 10 more. Ross (5-foot-11) and Livingston (6-0) made it tough for the Gazelles to get second chances on their missed shots.

"We've been a pressing team all year, too," Parziale said. "We like to force teams into [ballhandling] errors. We know that we're going to have to play our best when it comes to the district playoffs."

Girls' second-year coach, Tim Tracy, was just happy to be playing in the championship game, something the team hadn't done in years.

"We lost to Frankford by 22 in the regular season but came back to beat them [52-42] in the semifinals, so I think we're going in the right direction," Tracy said.

"Nobody expected us to get here," said Tracy, 25, a graduate of Lansdale Catholic. "We don't have any big, recognizable names. We've only had 15 games this season. Next year, I hope to improve our [preseason] tourney games and add more nonconference games."

Siena Childs led Girls with 11 points.

Girls 9 7 8 5 – 29

Central 11 19 12 4 – 46

G: Traneya White 3, Evelyn Ogden 4, Destiny McFarlane 4, Tanesha Sutton 7, Siena Childs 11.

C: Najah Jacobs 18, Taylor Phillips 10, Isabella Ross 13, Asia Mosee 2, Brittany Wilson 3.