Light Blues land schools U-19 title

Saturday, November 07, 2009 6:55 PM

Sport

Livingston Scott, Observer staff reporter

Thursday, March 26, 2009

ST George's College added the KFC/ISSA National Schools basketball title to their trophy cabinet for the first time in more than 10 seasons after beating Herbert Morrison Technical, 66-49, in the replayed final at the National Stadium Courts yesterday.

KFC's marketing executive Rohan Halsall presents the KFC/ISSA National Basketball Trophy to the St George's College team which defeated Herbert Morrison Technical, 66-49, in the U-19 final at the National Stadium Courts yesterday. (Photo: Garfield Robinson)

Led by U-19 MVP Stefano Leslie with 24 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists, the Clifford Brown-coached 'Light Blues' shrugged off a slow start to eventually win convincingly.

Khaleel Smith and Dane Griffiths provided Leslie with good support, posting 12 points and 13 rebounds, and 10 points and 16 rebounds, respectively.

Jervis Hamilton topscored for the Montegonians with 20 points and 10 rebounds; Jamoi Richards had 11 points and Kedar Clarke, nine points.

St George's dominated the rain-aborted final last Thursday, which was rescheduled to yesterday, and led comfortable (30-14) at half-time.

However, the Western Conference respresentatives displayed more resolve this time around and held their opponents to a 14-14 tie at the end of the first quarter.

St George's, however, showed much resilience to keep their advantage and at the half-time interval were ahead by four points (31-27).

In the second half, St George's started to pull away and Herbert Morrison could not find the answer as Leslie and Smith took the game to their opponents.

Brown's team continued its dominance in the last quarter, outscoring the Dave Black-coached Herbert Morrison 17-9 to win by 17 points.

U-19 Coach of the Year Brown said after a nervous start, he had to remind his team at half-time to play their own game.

"I wasn't overconfident coming into the game, but I cannot speak for everybody. But I sense that some of the players were not mentally attuned to the game...," he said.

"But I feel like a man who has won a million dollars... because I'm the winner of the largest schoolboy basketball prize in Jamaica," he added.
Herbert Morrison's captain, Jervis Hamilton, said his team made a great start but were not able to maintain it.

"I thought we could have done more on defence and step up our offence some more... but we're proud of ourselves," he said.

Meanwhile, in the awards presentation that followed, Jamaica College's Deano Hibbert was voted the MVP of the U-16 tournament, while coach Kurt Russell was the Coach of
the Season.

If you were to grade Derick Latibeaudiere's performance over his 13 years as Bank of Jamaica governor, what grade would he get?
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