CAMPERDOWN High staved off defending champions St George’s College in the closing seconds to pull off an exciting 62-57 win to capture the 2018/2019 Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association Southern Conference Under-19 basketball title, at National Arena recently.

The Camperdown Road-based aggregation gained their first hold on the Under-19 title Championship and did so undefeated throghtout the season.

Winning coach Nyron Hurd said the players had to dig deep to get the better of St George’s College, especially in the final quarter.

“We are happy and joyous for the win as it was the first time winning the Under-19 title, and this was achieved through the same players who won the Under-16 title last year. They stepped up to the challenge in the Under-19 competition and won the championship, and they should be congratulated for their brilliant performance,” Hurd said.

“The players really stepped up their game in the second half and also the final quarter. That led us into our transition that Camperdown plays and defended well in the closing seconds to win,” said a delighted coach.

Meanwhile, Clifford Brown, coach of St George’s College, said it was a tough, competitive and gruelling cpntest whichcould have gone either way, especially with Camperdown leading by one point, 58-57, with 45 seconds remaining.

“The players made a few errors and also got caught up with some of the calls made by the officiating referees, with the game very closely poised. I think that’s one of the reasons the team lost,” Brown said.

He added: “I have been in many finals as a coach, and I think this is one of the worst officiating I have seen in a final. They should have used the best referees for the final.”

Meanwhile, the first quarter of the game saw St George’s take a 12-7 lead in the early exchanges before Camperdown rallied strongly to go into the first break, tied at 17-17.

Camperdown led by two points at the half-time break, 30-28.

The pace of the game quickened in the third quarter, with St George’s College tying the scores at the start 30-30 before leading 47-44 at the final break.

The final quarter produced some exciting action. They were tied three more times at 49-49, 51-51, and 54-54 before St George’s College went up 57-56, but Camperdown quickly regained the lead 58-57 with 45 seconds remaining.

The principal scorers for Camperdown were Shemar Campbell with 16 points, Tyrece Thompson with 11 points and 10 rebounds, while for St George’s College, Tadre Dickens had a game-high 22 points, and Samora Williams added 14 points and 13 rebounds.

Earlier, Jamaica College (JC) defeated Calabar High 56-50 to win the third-place play-off. For JC, their main scorers were Khaleal Bogle with 20 points and 13 rebounds, John-Pierre McKenzie with 11 points and seven rebounds, while Carlton Boothe with 12 points and 11 rebounds, and Shavarne Beech, 10 points and nine rebounds, scored mostly for Calabar.