Calabar at the double
Published:Friday | December 19, 2014 | 7:49 PMRaymond Graham
CALABAR High completed the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association urban basketball double when they defeated St George's College 55-49 in the decisive third match of the best-of-three finals at the National Stadium court yesterday.
It's the schools first senior basketball title since 2007 and it came a day after Calabar had swept aside St Jago High in the Under-16 finals.
Calabar went into the game with the momentum after levelling the finals with a brilliant fourth quarter on Thursday.
St George's went in front early yesterday with a 14-8 lead after five minutes. However, Calabar went into the first break leading 20-14.
With Malik McCarthy and Jehvaughn Fauldner playing well, Calabar took control early in the second half and extended their lead to 25-17 and led 32-27 lead at half time.
It was all Calabar in the third quarter as at one stage they had a healthy 11 points and closed the quarter at 46-34.
Despite being down by double figures going into the final quarter, St George's kept fighting. Led by point guard Malik Jackson they came within one point, 50-49, with less than two minutes to go. However, the Calabar players kept their composure to win by six points.
Fauldner with 26 points and 10 rebounds was the top man for Calabar, with Shamar Shand assisting with 13 points. Jackson scored 22 points and seven rebounds for St George's.
Calabar's coach, Ludlow Barker, was very elated with his team's double success.
"Congratulations to the boys as they came out and played hard. St George's are a very good team as they have beaten us twice this season, but when we won the second game to tie the series the guys started to have confidence in themselves and knew that they could have beaten them," said Barker.
Kingston College's Malik Pusey walked away with five awards at a presentation ceremony after the match. In addition to being named MVP of the league he also picked up awards for being top scorer, top rebounder, top three-point shooter and player with most steals.
Other awards went to Shaquille Allen of St George's College for most blocked shots, Prince Moodie of Jamaica College for most assists, and Ayjum Barton of Campion for free throws.