These titles sure do come easy for Barbados Community College.
Make it championship number nine for the Eyrie Eagles after the defending champs scored 18 unanswered points between the third and fourth quarters to win another United Insurance Division 1 Basketball crown with Friday’s 61-50 victory over Samuel Jackman Prescod Polytechnic (SJPP) at Cave Hill.
It was a rather lacklustre finish to a day that promised much after the prior Division 2 final provided non-stop drama in an overtime thriller.
But such is the humdrum state of schools’ basketball which has seen the Eagles soar to an unprecedented ninth title in ten years while dropping just a solitary contest.
So far removed are BCC that not even the title game was as close as the eventual score suggested, as the champs led by as many as 18 (49-31) in the fourth quarter before Ashley Smith’s late burst made the scoreline look respectable.
The game was effectively over less than three minutes into the fourth, with the contest proving anything but when BCC fashioned the beginnings of an 18-0 run late in the third quarter with the scores tied at 31.
This was not too long after Polytechnic had already battled back from a near double-digit deficit as the Eagles scored 16 of the game’s first 23 points before maintaining a nine-point cushion early in the second quarter.
However, star big man Lamar Grazette sat out the rest of the half due to foul trouble, and SJPP held the champs to just seven second-quarter points by keeping them out of their favoured transition game.
Reducing the deficit to four points (23-19) at the break, Polytechnic actually looked threatening after taking a brief lead (27-26) via successive drives from shifty guards Denzil Bovell and Alex Cumberbatch.
But Stefan Ottley swiftly ended the rally with a pull-up three-pointer, before Kelan Phillips, Orion Seale and Stephan Taylor put a stop to the Polytechnic menace with a furious run of fastbreak baskets.
So quick were the transition scores that Phillips appeared to be the only player across the half while SJPP were downright lethargic in getting back off turnovers and missed shots.
Taurean Miller eventually ended the near six-minute drought with a long triple, before Tyoka Young and tournament MVP Nicholas Rouse added baskets in a run of seven unanswered points.
That rally proved short-lived though, as Phillips and Seale were at it again, reopening an 18-point advantage (55-37) in just 48 seconds before Smith hit three successive treys in a futile late-game spurt.
Ottley finished with 13 points, Phillips and Seale both scored 12, while Smith led Polytechnic with 14.