HOLY Childhood High School held off a late burst from The Queen’s 55-54 to capture the 2018 Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) Southern Conference High School girls’ basketball league title at the Calabar High School Court last Saturday.

Both teams are expected to participate in the National All-Island Play-offs along with the two losing semi-finalists, defending champions Camperdown High at St Andrew High School For Girls.

Martha McGregor of Holy Childhood was adjudged the Most Valuable Player of the final where she was the top scorer for her team scoring 18 points and 10 rebounds.

Meanwhile, winning coach of Holy Childhood High School Oneil Brown said it was a very good win for the team.

“Queen’s gave us a very good fight as they have the guts, but Holy Childhood have more experience, as the players stuck to the plan, and also stayed focused in the last few seconds of the final quarter to clinch victory,” Brown said.

He added that The Queen’s are a very good team who could have pulled off victory.

According to Brown, the final was a different game from the other two games that Holy Childhood lost to The Queen’s in the preliminary rounds. “One of my adjustments for the game I told the players to lock down their key players from scoring too often.”

Losing coach Donald Bimmer said it was a very highly competitive and exciting game.

“Queen’s got their chances to pull off victory but they wasted a number of turnovers that they should have easily scored. However, I give credit to the players for playing so well and just losing a very good game by a slim margin,” Bimmer said.

Holy Childhood got off to a quick start to post a 17-9 lead at the first break. However, it was a different approach by The Queen’s in the second quarter as they recovered to take a 28-23 lead at half-time.

The third quarter ensued into an exciting battle as Holy Childhood regained their rhythm to take a narrow 41-40 lead into the final quarter before holding a same margin at the final whistle.

Britney Mitchell with 15 points and 18 rebounds was the other principal scorer for Holy Childhood, while the main scorers for The Queen’s were Abigayle Sutherland, who got 15 points, Ashani Simms with 12 points and Abigail Clarke with 11 point and eight rebounds.

Abigail Clarke of The Queen’s was the league’s leading scorer, Zaiello Riley of St Hugh’s was top shot blocker, Shantay Thomas of Meadowbrook High, top stealer, and Abigayle Sutherland of Queen’s was top assist.

Top rebounder was Britney Mitchell of Holy Childhood, top three-point shooter was Abigail Clarke, and top free thrower was Danville Tennant of St Andrew High School For Girls.