Garrison, QC in battle for U-16 crown

The two best teams in the Co-operators General Insurance/NSC Under-16 Schools’ Basketball Competition will battle for the crown from 3 p.m. at the Garfield Sobers Sports Complex.
No. 1 Queen’s College (QC) and No. 2 Garrison Secondary predictably reached this evening’s finals with contrasting wins over Ellerslie Secondary and Harrison College (HC), respectively.   
QC, who played unbeaten in the regular season, blew off Ellerslie Secondary 64-29,  after rushing to a 34-12 half-time lead.
The Husbands team, with a tremendous bench depth, turned the match into a no-contest, with the league’s best blocker Torian Deane proving to be a nightmare for most of the Ellerslie players who dared to drive into the key.
Ellerslie big man Raphael Brathwaite got 15, the same as QC’s top scorer Keiron Savoury. Savoury was supported by the speedy Malcolm Hendricks, 13; Devon Deane, ten, and Nykel Wilson, eight.
The Garrison/HC game moved at a slow pace, with key man Andrew Ifill, suffering from an ankle injury, still able to propel his team to a 46-20 victory and set up another battle with QC after losing the regular season game by one point. The game limped to a half-time score of 32-17 after the scores remained at 25-12 for almost five minutes.  
Garrison’s Shaquan Newton then hit back-to-back three pointers to jump-start his team before ending with three treys and a game-high 17 points. Ifill made 12, the as big man Amal Smith.  
College’s Nikolai Burton carried his team’s challenge with 16 points. (KB)