Ardenne claim U-16 crown, as Hydel, STATHS face game 3

Saturday, February 04, 2012

ARDENNE High scored a comfortable 44-31 victory over St Catherine High School to win the KFC/South Conference best-of-three Under-16 basketball final series 2-0 and claim their third successive title at the National Stadium Courts yesterday.

However, the senior Under-19 final will have to go to a decisive game three after St Andrew Technical (STATHS) overcame Hydel 44-40 in a closely contested game two.

In the senior game, Joel Smith and Keiron Dill led STATHS with 14 points each, with Smith pulling 16 rebounds and Dill taking 14 rebounds, eight steals and seven assists.

Deano Hibbert was Hydel’s top scorer with a game-high 18 points and eight steals, and his best support came from Jason Hylton with eight points.

Knowing that they needed to win to force a game three, STATHS started well, but found themselves behind soon after as Hydel took control of the half with Hibbert leading the charge.

But despite top players Dill and Smith not having their best day in the first half, STATHS trailed 6-9 after the first quarter and tied the scored at 21-21 going in at half-time.

However, the Venrice Watson-coached STATHS surged into the lead early in the second half, with Dill stepping up his game, and it was Hydel’s turn to play catch-up thereafter.

STATHS led 35-30 going into the final period of the match and were ahead by only three (42-39) in the final seconds of the game. And although Hydel threatened to send the game into overtime, they failed to take advantage of some good breaks, and in the end STATHS broke away to seal the win with a basket in the last second.

After coming from behind to beat the said opponents for the title last season, STATHS’s coach Watson said it ‘deja vu’.

“We’ve been here before, so we should do it again... Hydel played a very good game and I respect them, but honour, diligence and service will always take us through,” he said.

Hydel’s assistant coach Roger Marshall said some minor mistakes cost them the game and they will work on correcting them for game three on Monday.

Meanwhile, Ardenne made light work of St Catherine to retain their title for the secondyear running.

Javon Davis led the scoring for the Basil Barrett-coached school with a game-high 21 points and 14 rebounds. He received good support from Maliek McCarthy with nine points and Patrick Watson with eight points and eight rebounds.

Akeem Brooks was St Catherine’s top scorer with 13 points followed by Akeem Tomlinson with 11 points.

Ardenne took the first quarter 15-9, and stretched their advantage to 12 (26-14) at the half-time interval. St Catherine won the third quarter 9-7 to cut the lead to 10 points (33-23), but Ardenne outscored their opponents 11-8 in the final stanza for an easy win.

Barrett said it was a well executed game from his boys and he was proud to have won the junior title three years in a row, from seven consecutive finals.

“We played well in every department and we stayed away from foul trouble and we were able to just cruise through the game,” he said.