PET holds off undermanned Constitution

ONLY A DEATH in his family could have caused a sadder expression to assume command of David George's face.

A shade before 5 p.m. Tuesday, in various ways, he kept saying how poorly Philadelphia Electrical & Technology Charter had performed in a Public A basketball game.

Wait. The Chargers had won, 58-56. And the opponent had been visiting Constitution, a fellow toughie. And George, a 6-7, 190-pound senior frontcourter drawing serious interest from numerous Division I schools with top-notch academics, had contributed 15 points, 10 rebounds and four blocked shots.

Why the blue mood?

Well . . . Constitution had gone to war without its top four players. And of the seven Generals used by coach Rob Moore, only Fajion Jones (6-3, 185) stood taller than 5-10 and weighed more than 145 pounds. Frankly, some of those guys, as brassy as they were, could have passed for sixth-graders.

PET, meanwhile, has one other starter who's even taller than George - Jai Williams, at 6-9 - and all of its rotation members boast a decent amount of height/strength.

"That was the worst game we ever played," PET coach James "Flame" Lewis said.

Added George: "A win's a win and we'll take it, but we definitely played down to the level of competition.

"I give them credit. They played fast and hard, a lot harder than we did. They had all those little guys running around, and we let them speed up the game. They got us out of our game."

Moore said he benched his top four players "because of an accumulation of [basketball-related] things."

He gave that explanation at halftime, then said, "If we were close, I was going to let them play the second half. But you know what? We're up [34-32] and I'm having so much fun coaching these guys, they're going to finish the game."

In the first quarter, in which they were outscored, 20-10, the Generals committed eight turnovers, and six of their shots were rejected. Then, presto, they stormed to 10 straight points in the first 2 minutes of the second quarter, and the game was terrific thereafter.

Well, from the competitive standpoint.

"I had no idea this was going to happen," George said. "Then I saw all those little guys come out for the tap. I thought we'd see their regular guys late in the first quarter, or to start the second quarter, or maybe for the second half . . . "

If the Chargers had played in calm, sensible fashion, they could have run high-low plays involving George and Williams on every possession. Instead, helter was often coupled with skelter.

On a nifty inbound pass from Jones, who put forth every last ounce of effort while posting 27 points and 18 rebounds, frosh Akeem King (15 points) curled in a layup to make it 56-56 with 1:09 left.

The decisive bucket came at 0:27 as Williams took a dump-in pass from Hakeem Baxter (14 points, seven assists, four steals) and dropped in a layup.

At 0:14 and 0:02, Baxter missed a pair of front-ends. Shaire Tolson-Ford grabbed the latter rebound in the lane and tried to fire way downcourt for a miracle bucket. As he released the ball, his arm became locked with a Charger's. There was no call.

George, who lives on St. Albans Street, near 23rd and Catharine, is hearing from many schools in the Ivy League, along with Colgate, Northeastern and Rhode Island, among others. He's kicking himself for having made no official visits so far, and he's eager to get started.

When asked whether he has given even remote thought to location, he shot back, "I don't want to be too far away, but nothing extremely close."

Guess that rules out Penn.

"Nah, nah," he said, finally smiling. "I don't mean that. I don't want to cancel out any option."

George said his parents, Christine and Stephen, have given him great support while always stressing academics.

"Hard work in the classroom is just as important as what you do on the court," he said. "An injury could end your career at any point. Then you're going to really need your academics, right?"

Just as a team needs to maintain focus when it sees a surprise opponent and just knows it'll win by 40.