MONTEGO BAY, St James-

Cornwall College will start their hunt for the double in the ISSA/KFC western conference high schools basketball competition as the best of three finals in both sections gets under way at the Montego Bay Cricket Club today.

The former double champions, will face Spot Valley High in the Under-16 finals set to start at 2:00 pm, before taking on favourites Mannings School in the Under -19 finals set to get underway at 3:30 pm.

The finalists in both sections were decided after Monday’s exciting, nail-biting semi-finals at the same venue. Two of the four games were decided by a point, one in either section.

Game Two of the finals will be played next Monday while, if necessary, Game Three will be played next Thursday.

Cornwall maintained their unbeaten run in the Under- 16 section by beating Irwin High 63-54 then upsetting Herbert Morrison Technical 76-68 in the Under 19 section.

Spot Valley High will face Cornwall College in the Under 16 finals after beating Muschett 37-36 in their semi-final while Mannings School will start favourites to win the Under 19 section after a stirring come from behind 72-71 win over Muschett in their semi-final.

Three western teams in either section will advance to the national play-offs and so a third place play-off between the two losing semi-finalists will be played prior to Game Two of the finals.

A mistake by Muschett’s Lemar Mitchell with seven seconds to go cost his team the win against Mannings as the player lost track of the scores thinking his team was in the lead, dribbled out the time.

In fact, they trailed by a point after Mannings’ Travis Vernon grabbed a rebound and made a basket to put his team up 72-71.

Muschett got off to a fast start against the top seed but Mannings came back to take the lead by one point, 19-18 at the first break.

Muschett led by three points at half-time 37-34 and increased the lead to 54-49 after the third quarter.

Mannings was, however, resilient and came back strongly in the fourth quarter to take the lead late before Mitchell’s blunder.

Mannings’ Richard Chambers led all scorers with 38 points, Troy Reid scored 13 points including three three-pointers while Andre Davids scored nine points.

Danny White was the top scorer for Muschett with 19 points, Darren Reid scored 18 points while Mitchell scored 16 points.

In the other Under 19 semi-final, Cornwall College rode a big second quarter to an upset win.

Cornwall trailed 12-18 after the first quarter but out-scored Herbert Morrison 28-11 in the second quarter for a 40-29 buffer at half-time.

Jhaun Bryan was the top scorer with 22 points and 13 rebounds for Cornwall as three others got into double figures. Ricardo Greaves scored 11 points while Gavin Brown and Peter Reid scored 10 points each.

Jervis Hamilton was the top scorer for Herbert Morrison with 18 points, Jamoi Richards scored 17 points, Travis Anglin had 15 points while Oral McNarren scored 12 points.

In the Under-16 section, Cornwall College built a solid lead and managed to hold off Irwin High who came back strongly in the fourth quarter.

Christopher Smith led Cornwall’s charge with 24 points while Oshane Cunningham scored 20 points.

In the other game, Spot Valley was pushed to the limit by Muschett before holding them off for a one-point win.