NOW, IT’S THE TURN of the kids.
The best of basketball’s “Generation Next” is set to take the floor on Tuesday with spots for the Under-20 title game on the line as the local season prepares to wind down with its last competition of the year.
The Final Four and Thursday’s subsequent championship contest will serve as the perfect lead up to the schools’ annual senior competition next month.
Led by Premier League starter Aamir Morris, the top-ranked Clapham Bulls – the only club to own multiple junior titles – start as heavy favourites against the underdog Bayland squad following a whirlwind unbeaten run (5-0) through the regular season.
It doesn’t help matters any that Bayland were handed a 38-point drubbing in the teams’ lone meeting this year where Morris, Kelan Phillips and Nicholas Rouse ran wild in a surreal open court romp that Clapham led by as many as 40.
Not that Bulls treated everyone else much differently.
Boasting the league’s best player in Morris – a prolific scorer and rebounder with the ability to play both forward positions – Clapham easily proved to the toast of the competition while thrashing their opponents by an average margin of 36.8 points.
So dominant is their run, that their closest gap has been a 20-point cushion over long-time adversaries Station Hill Cavaliers – the one club that was expected to rival Bulls for the title this season.
With a talent-laden roster of Anand Joseph-Thorne, Lamar Grazette, Stephan Ottley, Jamario Clarke and Antoine Morris, Cavs should at least start be favoured to beat Lakers again in the other semi.
And without overseas-based point guard Chiamaka Browne, the Husbands boys will really be up against it while missing their best scoring threat and top playmaker for a game where they’re going to need as many points as possible.
However, Lakers are expected to receive somewhat of a timely boost via the inclusion of high-scoring off guard Akeem Marshall, who should bolster a relatively proficient attack that includes Premier League swingman Alejandro Boxhill, Tionne Bostic, Jimal Singh and Kareem Tyrell.
But even with Browne in the fold Lakers were still unable to down the Station Hill threat, coming out on the losing end of an 84-78 thriller.