Calabar retain ISSA U19 basketball crown

Calabar needed overtime to retain their ISSA all-island Under-19 basketball title with a 62-52 win over Ardenne at the GC Foster College auditorium on Tuesday night.

There was little to separate the teams throughout the contest as they were locked at 12-12 at the end of the first quarter before Calabar pulled away to lead 40-33 at the end of the third quarter.

However, Ardenne showed fight to rally to level the scores at 48-48 at the end of regular time but they were outscored 14-12 in the extra time period as Calabar retained their title.

They were led by MVP Malick McCarthy with 28 points.

Their coach is Ludloo Barker: “We had to have a lot of self-discipline, play good defence….we had to weather the storm because teams are not just going to let it down like that….even when we went into overtime, my team was still confident,” said Barker.                

The Under-16 final was also a competitive affair with St George’s College beating St Catherine 54-47 to win their fifth all island title in the last ten years.

St George’s established an 8 point lead at the end of the first quarter and improved it to 15 by half time at 41-26.

St Catherine finished strong in the last quarter but could only get within seven points. Samora Williams was the top scorer with 11 points, while Shervan Williams had a game high 14 points for St Catherine.