St George’s, Calabar reign in basketball finals
ST GEORGE’S College and Calabar High were crowned champions of the ISSA Under-16 and Under-19 All-Island Basketball Championships, respectively, in the finals at the GC Foster College and Physical Education and Sports in Spanish Town on Tuesday evening.
The St George’s aggregation defeated Southern Basketball Conference (SBC) champions St Catherine High 54-47 to lift the Under-16 crown, while defending champions Calabar High held out strongly to beat Ardenne 62-52 in overtime for the senior title.
It was St George’s fourth national title.
Jadeja McCormack of St George’s’ Under-16 team and Maliek McCarthy of Calabar High Under-19s captured the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award.
In the Under-16 final, St George’s led 20-12 at the first quarter and went into the halftime break with a 41-26 lead. St George’s led 45-37 points at the third-quarter break before St Catherine narrowed the lead to 49-46 with 1:30 minutes remaining. But the ‘light Blues’ from North Street applied the pressure on their opponents and pulled away to win an exciting game.
The principal scorers for St George’s were Jordan Gillies with 16 points, Nathan Reid 10 points and Domonic McCormack with 8 points, while for St Catherine Shevron Williams had 14 points, Swayveon Henry eight and Daniel Jones seven.
Action in the Under-19 final saw the scores locked at 12-12 in the first quarter before the winners led 23-19 at half-time. The third quarter saw Calabar taking a 15-point lead (38-23) before Ardenne came back nicely to cut the lead 40-33 at the final break.
The final quarter produced a ding-dong tussle between both teams with Ardenne finding the target quickly to make it 47-44 with 56 seconds remaining on the clock. Calabar went up 48-44, but with two quick baskets, Ardenne pulled level at 48-48 before the whistle.
They went into five-minute extra time period to decide a winner, and defending champions Calabar dominated this period to outscore Ardenne to come out on top.
Maliek McCarthy of Calabar had a game-high 28 points and Jehvaun Faulder got 12, while for Ardenne the top scorers were Justin Rhoden with 14 points and Jordan Earle with nine points.
In the Under-16 third-place play-off, Jamaica College beat Manchester High 27-21, while St Catherine High defeated Old Harbour 41-32 in the Under-19 category.
In the Under-16 semi-finals, St Catherine defeated Manchester High 42-26 and St George’s College beat Jamaica College 41-22. In the Under-19 semi-finals, Calabar held off St Catherine 47-45, while Ardenne beat Old Harbour 27-19.
Meanwhile, winning coach of St George’s College, Clifford Brown, summed up the victory.
“We led throughout the four quarters, and it was our uptempo approach the team produced that (upset) the rhythm of St Catherine that gave us a big lead by the half-time break, and that was where we won the game,” Brown said.
Losing coach, Lennox Lindo of St Catherine, saluted his players, but thought they allowed St George’s too much room to take hold of the game.
“After closing to trail by only three points, we had a very good chance of winning, but they failed to score the opportunities created, added to a few turnovers that St George’s capitalised on to pull away to win,” Lindo said.
In the Under-19 competition, an emotional Calabar coach Ludloo Barker, was overwhelmed by his players’ fight and discipline.
“It was undoubtedly one of the hardest matches the team has played, but they stuck to the task well, even when the scores were locked at 48-48 at the end of (regulation) time. They just came out in the added five minutes and blew away our opponents,” Barker said.
Basil Barrett of Ardenne said his players fought an excellent battle with Calabar and should be very proud despite losing the contest.
“We lost the game in the added five minutes with the scores locked at 48-48 before our opponents got the better of us after doing well at this stage. They outscored us 14 points to our four points and that made the difference between us and victory,” he said.