By Curtis Morton
It must be that the many fans who showed up to support the St. George’s under 21 Basketball team, as they participated in the playoffs and later the grand finals of the under 21 Basketball tournament, all have strong hearts.
Their team not only took them through a heart stuttering encounter versus St. Paul’s in the play offs stage, but forced them to endure another hair raiser, in the grand finals versus St. John’s, on Saturday 3rd March.
In that final encounter, which was witnessed by a sizeable and vociferous crowd, at the end of regular time, the scores were tied up at 58 all.
At the end of the additional five minutes of overtime, the scores were tied at 71 –all.
The game then went into a second five minutes of overtime, hardly heard of in local Basketball and when it really mattered, St. John’s wilted under pressure and with a number of their key players ‘fouled out,’ they were forced to play the final minutes of the game with only three players on the court.
However, those three players, played their hearts out and Gassano Barry bravely fought on, despite a leg injury.
In the end, the pressure was just too much.
Final score:
St. George’s 102 St. John’s 93
First quarter St. John’s 14 St. George’s 8
Second quarter St. George’s 16 St. John’s 9
Third quarter St. John’s 29 St. George’s 20
Fourth quarter St. George’s 29 St. John’s 21
Overtime 1 St. John’s 13 St. George’s 13
Overtime 2 St. George’s 16 St. John’s 7
Half time score 24 to 23 in favor of St. George’s Parish
St. George’s 102 points
Trevorne Simmonds 52poi 17reb 5ass 7ste 3b/s 15 of 23 free throw made 11turnovers
Tyreek Freeman 9poi 22reb 1ass 2ste 4b/s 3 of 4 free throw made 3turnovers
Shaphan Chapman 11poi 5reb 1ass 7ste 1b/s 1 of 2 free throw made 4turnovers
Jaleel Huggins 16poi 3reb 2ass 2ste 1 of 2 free throw made 1turnovers
St. John’s Parish 93 points
Gassano Barry 36poi 13reb 4ass 2 of 9 free throw made 6turnovers
Kareem Parry 27poi 4reb 4ass 1ste 10 of 10 free throw made 8turnovers
Dicquane Gerald 21poi 3reb 2ass 1b/s 6 of 13 free throw made 5turnovers
Kendel Fahie 1poi 4reb 1ste 1b/s 1 of 2 free throw made 3turnovers
Congratulations to the St. Georges Parish Team Lefco U21 Parish League Champions.
The statistics on the two closely fought playoff games are as follows:
Lefco U21 Parish League Playoff Game One
St. George’s 61 St. Paul’s 60
First quarter St. Paul’s 12 St. George’s 11
Second quarter St. Paul’s 16 St. George’s 11
Third quarter St. George’s 14 St. Paul’s 12
Fourth quarter St. George’s 24 St. Paul’s 20
Half time score 28 to 22 in favor of St. Paul’s Parish
St. Georges Parish 61 points
Trevorne Simmonds 24poi 7reb 2ass 6ste 5 of 12 free throw made 4turnovers
Tyreek Freeman 14poi 13reb 2ste 0 of 3 free throw 1turnover
Shaphan Chapman 10poi 3reb 1ass 2ste 2turnover
Jaleel Huggins 3poi 3reb 4ass 7ste 1 of 2 free throw made 6turnovers
St. Paul’s Parish 60 points
Jerome Clarke 18poi 14reb 2ass 1b/s 0 of 2 free throw 4turnover
Thabiti Abrams 15poi 14reb 3ass 2ste 2 of 4 free throw made 6turnovers
Azaan Liburd 6poi 4reb 3ass 2ste 3 of 8 free throw made 4turnovers
Chavez Archibald 6poi 1reb 2ass 2ste 1 of 2 free throw made 4turnover
Lefco U21 Parish League Playoff Game Two
St. John’s 53 St. Thomas 45
First quarter St. John’s 14 St. Thomas 11
Second quarter St. John’s 18 St. Thomas 5
Third quarter St. Thomas 19 St. John’s 14
Fourth quarter St. Thomas 10 St. John’s 7
Half time score 22 to 16 in favor of St. John’s Parish
St. John’s Parish 53 points
Gassano Barry 21poi 16reb 5ste 2 of 6 free throw made 1turnover
Kareem Parry 18poi 6reb 5ass 4ste 4 of 4 free throw made 3turnovers
Dicquane Gerald 7poi 4reb 1ass 2ste 3 of 5 free throw made 4turnovers
Stevenson Providence 2poi 8reb 1ass 6b/s 4turnovers
St. Thomas Parish 45 points
Hakeem Harvey 9poi 15reb 3ass 1b/s 1 of 3 free throw made 6turnovers
Hassan Harvey 13poi 8reb 1ass 1ste 1b/s 1 of 3 free throw made 1turnover
Deondre Moving 10poi 2ass 2ste 2ass 4turnovers
Dequan Moving 7poi 3reb 1ass 1ste 1b/s 1 of 2 free throw made 4turnovers
END