STATHS into semis of All-Island play-offs

Paul Reid

Friday, February 17, 2012

MONTEGO BAY, St James — St Andrew Technical High (STATHS) advanced to the semi-finals of the ISSA/KFC All-Island Under-19 Boys' Basketball Play-offs on Wednesday after scoring a close 52-47 victory over Cornwall College at Montego Bay Cricket Club.

It was STATHS' second win after beating Belair High earlier and saw them advance to the top-four from Zone Two, while Cornwall fell to their second straight defeat.

Meanwhile, in an Under-16 game played earlier, St Catherine High edged Western Conference champions Herbert Morrison Technical, 54-51, after staving off a late rush from their Montego Bay opponents.

St Catherine, who were led by 24 points and 20 rebounds from Akeem Brooks, led 14-12, 22-19 and 40-30 at the intervals, but Herbert Morrison came back strongly in the fourth quarter, outscoring the visitors, 21-14, but fell short.

Krishawn Givans scored 10 points for St Catherine; Akeem Tomlinson had nine, while Okeem Brown pulled 11 rebounds.

Ralique Grant, who led the comeback, scored 22 points inclusive of five three pointers, while Daniel Henry scored 19 points and had seven rebounds for Herbert Morrison.

In the second game, Cornwall, who had to win to have any hopes of advancing, got off to a good start and led by four points midway the first quarter, but STATHS quickly got into rhythm and went on a 12-2 run to finish the quarter ahead, 16-10.

The visitors started the second quarter with a 6-3 run but were pegged back by dogged defence from the Cornwall team as the half ended 25-19 in favour of STATHS.

STATHS took over the game in the third quarter and led by as many as 18 points (39-21) after a big 14-2 surge, but after Michael Thomas picked up his fifth foul early in the quarter, Cornwall started clawing their way back, led by 16 year-old Rashid Davis after starting point guard Tevin Brown went to the bench with four fouls.

They, however, failed to close the gap all the way despite a game-high 19 points from Christopher Ray Smith, who also had 10 blocked shots and six rebounds, while Josimar Stephenson scored 10 points and had 10 rebounds.

Keiron Dill scored 18 points and had seven rebounds for STATHS, while Kenroy Kentish scored 14 points and pulled 13 rebounds.