St Hugh’s rally to defeat St Andrew
ST HUGH’S High held off a late charge from defending champions St Andrew High to come out with a narrow 33-31 win as the 2013 ISSA High Schoolgirls’ Basketball League got underway at the Stadium Basketball Courts last on Tuesday.
The Latoya Bidwell-Wallen-coached St Hugh’s, after having a comfortable lead coming into the fourth quarter, had to stave off a late challenge from the Franklin Burrell-coached defending champions St Andrew High to come out winners.
St Hugh’s dominated the entire first quarter as they took a 12-0 lead, before St Andrew fought back nicely in the second quarter, but still trailed the winners 17-10 at the half-time break.
The teams were evenly matched in the third quarter, with the defending champions coming in to their own and in the process gradually began closing the gap on their opponents to make it 29-20.
St Hugh’s stepped up the pace in the final quarter, especially through Azizy McCarthy, and pushed their score close to their opponents at 29-27. With just a little over two minutes remaining, St Hugh’s scored two straight baskets to move further ahead 31-27.
A close tussle ensued into the last two minutes of the match with St Andrew scoring to pull closer at 31-29, but the winners scored once more to stay clear 33-29. The defending champions scored again to make the final score of 33-31.
Antoinette Stone was St Hughs’ principal scorer with 16 points, four rebounds and three steals, while McCarthy had a game-high 19 points and three rebounds for defending champions St Andrew High.
In other matches played last Tuesday, St Catherine High defeated Vauxhall High 35-19, Campion College beat Tivoli High 25-25 and Holy Childhood defeated Old Harbour High 35-17.
Ten high schools are participating in this year’s competition and are divided into two zones of five each. The teams will play each other twice (home and away) in their respective zones.
The top two teams from each of the zones will advance to the semi-finals to be played on a knockout format. The final will be the best-of-three play-off series.
