Campion, St George’s take best-of-three advantages into game two

ST GEORGE’S College and Campion will go into today’s Urban Schoolboy Basketball finals with advantages when they take to the courts at the National Stadium later today.

In last Thursday’s openers, St George’s College, last year’s beaten finalists, got by Camperdown High 52-48 in game one of the under-16 final. In the under-19 final, Campion squeezed out a 50-47 win over St Catherine High.

St George’s College rushed into a big 14-6 lead after the first quarter. They maintained their advantage going into the half-time break, outscoring their opponents 17-14 to lead 31-20.

The Oneil Brown-coached Camperdown came out firing after the break, dominating the third quarter, outscoring their opponents 18-10 and reducing the deficit to one point heading into the final quarter with St George’s College leading 39-38.

In the final stretch, the experience of St George’s College, with five returning members from last year’s team, proved decisive as they took the quarter 13-10 to secure a 52-48 victory. Alexander Bailey topscored for the winners with 17 points, while Henry Leconte, with 22 points and 17 rebounds, was Camperdown’s best player.

In the senior finals, it was a tight battle in the opening quarter, with Campion holding a narrow one-point lead at the break, 11-10.

In the second stanza, Campion dominated, scoring 16 points to their opponents’ nine, taking a 27-19 lead into the half-time break.

The third quarter remained competitive, with Campion adding nine points to St Catherine’s eight, extending their lead to 36-27 heading into the final quarter.

However, St Catherine mounted a remarkable comeback in the fourth quarter, scoring 20 points to Campion’s 11. At the final whistle, the teams were deadlocked at 47-47, forcing overtime.

In the extra period, Campion blanked their opponents 3-0 to clinch a 50-47 victory. Ryan Martell led Campion with 20 points and 11 rebounds, while Tyrich Brown contributed 10 points and 10 rebounds for St Catherine.

Today, under-16 finals begins at 2 p.m., followed by the under-19s.