St Mary’s score scrappy b-ball win

St Mary’s College Under-20s on Friday took a temperate 48-34 win over Basilon Street Youth Facility at the St Paul’s Street Sport Facility in Port-of-Spain. This was after their under-20s match with Queen’s Royal College match was called off in the NGC/Express Secondary Schools Basketball League. The Basilon Street defence improved on their last showing and kept their opponents’ score down throughout the encounter holding CIC 9-6 at the end of the first quarter but went down 20-14 at the half and struggled as CIC led 39-26 going into the final quarter. While there were defensive improvements, both teams brought lacklustre attacks to the court — a fact which soon turned the match into a scrappy affair.

When the dust cleared Marlon Saldenha scored a match-high 15 points for CIC with team-mate Javon Williams adding 11. Kevon Eustace with 13 points led the Basion charge with 13. The other match pitted Malick Senior Secondary against Belmont Boys Secondary with the former taking a comfortable 50-26 win over the understaffed and uninspired opponents. Both teams looked close to death with Malick’s Dexter Holder making full use of his height advantage on many occasions to dunk the ball much to the delight of the Malick faithful. His 27 points were instrumental to Malick on the way to victory but his defensive effort left much to be desired.

Defence was not one of Belmont’s strong points either and the match deteriorated into a slugfest in which the two pugilists scored at will and were almost unhampered in the key though Malick managed a better rate of baskets. Malick’s Curt Snaggs added 14 and Cirn Joseph put in eight while Sebastien Pantin, Belmont’s best chance for victory had 21. Earlier in the week Excel Composite’s Under-15 team retained their league title with a 49-47 win over Belmont Junior Secondary and Morvant/Laventille Secondary School’s Under-20s topped their group in the division with a 76-36 collaring of CIC. Anthony Husbands was once again called upon to lead Morvant/Laventille and put in a distinguished match-high 32 points. Kirton Leggerton had 18 and Dylaun Skeete let in 12. For CIC Marlon Saldenha had ten points.