St Augustine b-ballers show why

ST AUGUSTINE Senior Comprehensive have set themselves up as favourites in the East Zone of the NGC/Express sponsored Secondary Schools’ Basketball League. Both of the school’s Under-17 and Under-20 teams are currently on an early season unbeaten run. On Tuesday the Under-17s set the Maloney Indoor Sport Arena alight as they stomped on the morale of Barataria Senior Comprehensive and beat them 73-23 to claim their second impressive win of the season. The usual suspects —  Duane Ottley and Marcus Hume — displayed why St Augustine should be considered for top honours at the end of the season when they took the Barataria defence to task and punished them from all areas of the court.

Having proven themselves in their first match against El Dorado Secondary, who they ramsacked 105-15, the pair have gained a reputation for their high scoring exploits. They made good on this notoriety on Tuesday as Ottley and Hume scored a game-high 20 and 13 points respectively. They were joined on the card by Kerry Celestine who shot his way to 11 points. Barataria Senior Comprehensive trailed for the entirety of the match 22-8 at the end of the first quarter; 41-12 at the half; and 58-18 as their “stars” Shayon Best and Olando Hayde each had six points. They found it increasingly difficult to penetrate the airtight St Augustine defence.

Under-20 title hopefuls San Juan Secondary Comprehensive rebounded from a 64-33 defeat to St Augustine last week to score a 73-21 win over minnows the Pentecostal Institute of Learning (PIL) in the second match on a day of lopsided competition in the East Zone. Rafael Sorzano and Tegan Pemberton accounted for 55 points of their team’s tally as they went to work on the hapless PIL team. Sorzano top-scored with 29 points and Pemberton hit a “sweet” 26 as the duo took over the show. PIL’s performance in the match reeked of under-preparation on their part and this clashed badly against the well-oiled San Juan unit’s showing.

The winners held a 20-7 lead at the end of the first quarter; shut them out in the second period and doubled their lead to 41-7, only allowing four points in the third quarter after which they led 55-11. Andre Hoyte and Jerome Roach both put in six points but their efforts were merely cosmetic as the result was never in doubt. As an official with his heart in Barataria was quick to point out, the Barataria Junior Secondary School basketball programme had a huge effect on Tuesday’s fixtures as all five top scorers from the two winning teams, Ottley Hume and Celestine of St Augustine and San Juan’s Sorzano and Pemberton came out of the programme.

Yesterday at the Eastern Regional Indoor Sport Arena, the Youth Training Centre (YTC) won the second match of their Under-20 campaign against Toco Composite by a 59-37 margin to place themselves in the running or a spot at the summit of the standings. YTC beat Manzanilla High School 68-40 in their season opener and returned with the same drive to thrash Toco, Abba Duke scored a game-high 17 points while Melake Cudjoe put in 13. Toco’s only representative on the scorecard was Akil Timothy whose contribution paled in comparison to his opponent’s. Today Arima Senior Comprehensive plays Valencia High School in an Under-17 match at 2 pm. Holy Cross College and Manzanilla High School are carded to take the court at 3 pm for their Under-20 fixture in the last day of play before the week-long Carnival break.